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A review by this_fishy_reads
Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff
2.0
Well, that was unexpected. When I finished Stormdancer, I was so concerned about how I would get my hands on the third book, since my library only had the first two. Not really a bother anymore.
At the start, I was only mildly irritated because shit all was happening. Kristoff clearly had no idea how to tell the story he wanted to tell over the course of a full-length novel. He introduces a bunch of new characters, giving everyone and their uncle POV chapters. There's a lot of wandering around and visiting of places that have no effect on any other part of the narrative. They're just kind of cool. Fine. Whatever. I mean, I was happy to wander around this world doing nothing. I did it for 200 pages before I finally cottoned on that we weren't really going anywhere.
But then all the rape happened. Yukiko gets threatened with rape. A nameless serving girl gets raped as we pass by an alleyway. A named character gets raped--to motivated a male character to make a damn decision already. Oh ho! Yukiko wasn't going to be raped, those other rapes are just there to really make you think it's going to happen! Phew! Oh, and then another named character is threatened with rape--to punish a male character. And then we finally round out everything with one final rape that isn't presented as rape but is still totally rape.
You know what I appreciated in Stormdancer? That Kristoff didn't fall back on this sort of lazy writing. His world is harsh and cruel and people die left and right just from breathing the air. But he didn't fall back on the rape-as-cruel-world shorthand, and he really could have. It might not have even bothered me since Stormdancer is so much better plotted. But here? In Kinslayer? When he gives me nothing else to care about because almost literally nothing happens and the things that do happen don't even matter? He's left me with nothing else to care about other than his weak writing.
So it really doesn't matter that my library doesn't have that third book.
At the start, I was only mildly irritated because shit all was happening. Kristoff clearly had no idea how to tell the story he wanted to tell over the course of a full-length novel. He introduces a bunch of new characters, giving everyone and their uncle POV chapters. There's a lot of wandering around and visiting of places that have no effect on any other part of the narrative. They're just kind of cool. Fine. Whatever. I mean, I was happy to wander around this world doing nothing. I did it for 200 pages before I finally cottoned on that we weren't really going anywhere.
But then all the rape happened. Yukiko gets threatened with rape. A nameless serving girl gets raped as we pass by an alleyway. A named character gets raped--to motivated a male character to make a damn decision already. Oh ho! Yukiko wasn't going to be raped, those other rapes are just there to really make you think it's going to happen! Phew! Oh, and then another named character is threatened with rape--to punish a male character. And then we finally round out everything with one final rape that isn't presented as rape but is still totally rape.
You know what I appreciated in Stormdancer? That Kristoff didn't fall back on this sort of lazy writing. His world is harsh and cruel and people die left and right just from breathing the air. But he didn't fall back on the rape-as-cruel-world shorthand, and he really could have. It might not have even bothered me since Stormdancer is so much better plotted. But here? In Kinslayer? When he gives me nothing else to care about because almost literally nothing happens and the things that do happen don't even matter? He's left me with nothing else to care about other than his weak writing.
So it really doesn't matter that my library doesn't have that third book.