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A review by abrittlebee
Lava Red Feather Blue by Molly Ringle
3.0
Relatively standard fantasy novel with a queer twist. In general, I found Lava Red Feather Blue an enjoyable read with cute characters. However, it was a little bulky.
As far as protagonists go, I really liked Larkin and Merrick. Personality-wise I found them similar, but because of their upbringing their perspectives were different enough to make them unique from one another. Larkin was an idealist who had yet to see his ideals fail, while Merrick was someone who had suffered due to the abuse and practical application of those ideals. It was a very comprehensive display of how privilege and power dynamics work. Plus their relationship with all it's “does he like me or is this just a medieval/modern thing?” was really frigging cute.
Story wise I found the world a little underwhelming. There were snippets of explanation that kept everything understandable, but a lot of the aspects of the world were told through dialogue, not shown or they were told before they were shown. An example would be that Cassidy and Merrick both tell Larkin not to trust the government because they think it is corrupt long before Larkin has any back and forth contact with any legal officials.This sort of pulled double duty in that it was both expository and it made some of the dialogue awkward. It also padded out the novel, which was another issue I had with it. So much of this book, especially in the first half, could have been streamlined.
As an urban fantasy, I think this works really well. I generally tend to prefer mine a little darker, but sometimes it’s nice to have something a little more Disney fairytale and a little less Grimm’s.
As far as protagonists go, I really liked Larkin and Merrick. Personality-wise I found them similar, but because of their upbringing their perspectives were different enough to make them unique from one another. Larkin was an idealist who had yet to see his ideals fail, while Merrick was someone who had suffered due to the abuse and practical application of those ideals. It was a very comprehensive display of how privilege and power dynamics work. Plus their relationship with all it's “does he like me or is this just a medieval/modern thing?” was really frigging cute.
Story wise I found the world a little underwhelming. There were snippets of explanation that kept everything understandable, but a lot of the aspects of the world were told through dialogue, not shown or they were told before they were shown. An example would be that Cassidy and Merrick both tell Larkin not to trust the government because they think it is corrupt long before Larkin has any back and forth contact with any legal officials.This sort of pulled double duty in that it was both expository and it made some of the dialogue awkward. It also padded out the novel, which was another issue I had with it. So much of this book, especially in the first half, could have been streamlined.
As an urban fantasy, I think this works really well. I generally tend to prefer mine a little darker, but sometimes it’s nice to have something a little more Disney fairytale and a little less Grimm’s.