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A review by sciencensorcery
Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick
2.0
I love the idea of the same souls reappearing throughout history and being drawn to each other again and again, yet filling different roles. It makes for an interesting examination of relationships and emotional intimacy to imagine the same two people in all these different dynamics — romantic, familial, platonic — though for the same reason it borders a bit on creepy and incestuous. Still, if done well I think it's a very comforting theme, the idea that this life isn't the only one where our loved ones will be close to us.
It's not that it's done badly here, I just didn't find it all that engaging. Though very different in many ways, it's hard not to compare this to [b:Cloud Atlas|49628|Cloud Atlas|David Mitchell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383769s/49628.jpg|1871423], which is perhaps unfair (and gives it very big shoes to fill) but, as I said, difficult to avoid. That, too, is about reincarnation of sorts, a collection of seemingly unrelated short stories tied together in surprising ways. And that, too, takes its title from a work of art which is created in one of the stories and pops up in others. But where Cloud Atlas shines is how distinct and dimensional each setting feels, to the point it's almost literally unbelievable that they were all written by the same author. Midwinterblood, on the other hand, feels exactly the same throughout, in settings 1000+ years apart. Sure, the plot elements are different, but as far as the actual writing — including dialogue — for the most part there's not even much change in voice when it switches from third- to first-person POV. Which is extra unfortunate for me since I found the writing style alternately bland and grating.
There are other comparisons I could make (as well as to other works like Lost, "The Lottery", and Legends of Tomorrow — no idea why all the L's — and even Slaughterhouse-Five with the repeating phrase "Well, so it is"), but I don't want to harp too much on that, especially since I also wasn't crazy about two of the aforementioned works. I'll just say that perhaps I would have enjoyed this one more had I not already read Cloud Atlas. If this concept is entirely new to you and Cloud Atlas seems too daunting, then you might like this one.
I will say that once or twice I was drawn in by some element or creeped out by a plot twist, but mostly the "twists" were either predictable for me or simply not that satisfying when they were revealed. And that's probably just because I didn't feel that engaged with the characters. Being a very character-centric story, at the very least Erik and Merle needed to be far more interesting than they are. It feels like they're carried mostly by the concept — "Oh, so that's how Merle fits into this story" — rather than any actual dimension or development. And being that the main thrust of the story is how inevitable their connection is, I never even really felt that!
Finally, as other reviewers have mentioned, I have no idea why this is labeled YA. It's not YA. That's not to say it might not appeal to young adults, but the story neither centers around nor is geared toward teenagers. There are teen or preteen characters a couple times, but that doesn't make it YA.
It's not that it's done badly here, I just didn't find it all that engaging. Though very different in many ways, it's hard not to compare this to [b:Cloud Atlas|49628|Cloud Atlas|David Mitchell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406383769s/49628.jpg|1871423], which is perhaps unfair (and gives it very big shoes to fill) but, as I said, difficult to avoid. That, too, is about reincarnation of sorts, a collection of seemingly unrelated short stories tied together in surprising ways. And that, too, takes its title from a work of art which is created in one of the stories and pops up in others. But where Cloud Atlas shines is how distinct and dimensional each setting feels, to the point it's almost literally unbelievable that they were all written by the same author. Midwinterblood, on the other hand, feels exactly the same throughout, in settings 1000+ years apart. Sure, the plot elements are different, but as far as the actual writing — including dialogue — for the most part there's not even much change in voice when it switches from third- to first-person POV. Which is extra unfortunate for me since I found the writing style alternately bland and grating.
There are other comparisons I could make (as well as to other works like Lost, "The Lottery", and Legends of Tomorrow — no idea why all the L's — and even Slaughterhouse-Five with the repeating phrase "Well, so it is"), but I don't want to harp too much on that, especially since I also wasn't crazy about two of the aforementioned works. I'll just say that perhaps I would have enjoyed this one more had I not already read Cloud Atlas. If this concept is entirely new to you and Cloud Atlas seems too daunting, then you might like this one.
I will say that once or twice I was drawn in by some element or creeped out by a plot twist, but mostly the "twists" were either predictable for me or simply not that satisfying when they were revealed. And that's probably just because I didn't feel that engaged with the characters. Being a very character-centric story, at the very least Erik and Merle needed to be far more interesting than they are. It feels like they're carried mostly by the concept — "Oh, so that's how Merle fits into this story" — rather than any actual dimension or development. And being that the main thrust of the story is how inevitable their connection is, I never even really felt that!
Finally, as other reviewers have mentioned, I have no idea why this is labeled YA. It's not YA. That's not to say it might not appeal to young adults, but the story neither centers around nor is geared toward teenagers. There are teen or preteen characters a couple times, but that doesn't make it YA.