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A review by ketutar
Missalonghin naiset by Colleen McCullough, Kirsti Kattelus
2.0
So... this is Colleen's retelling of [b:The Blue Castle|95693|The Blue Castle|L.M. Montgomery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442108651l/95693._SY75_.jpg|1298683]. It's not very good.
There are things I like about this, but the things I don't like are more.
Missy isn't clever like Valancy. Her situation isn't the same. We don't get the same urgency or desire or need, to live, as in The Blue Castle. Her awakening just doesn't sound real. We know Valancy had been seeing and thinking these things, all the time condemning her silly relatives, so when she finally has her outburst, we understand it. She just says out loud what she had been thinking. Not so with Missy. With her, it just comes out from nowhere. And it sounds mean, stupid, and childish. Valancy sounded exactly what she was. "I'm not going to play these games any longer", she says. Missy... There just isn't any base on her reactions.
The same thing with her mother and aunts. Their "awakening" also happened without any reason, explanation, any justification. At the beginning of the book, there is no trace of any revolt, objections, discontent, or resentment - all the ladies are silently and submissively accepting the situation as it is, and almost adoring their brothers and male cousins who run the place. Then, suddenly, Missy tells them about things, and they change to the almost total opposite.
And then... how she "got" John. Through lies and deceit. And the book ends with "don't tell him, don't ever tell him". We are assuming she never will. In The Blue Castle, Valancy didn't get Barney through deceit. She was as shocked as he was about the truth. There is no reason why Missy couldn't have told John the truth. We have no reason to believe her tenacity wouldn't have worked without the heart disease plot. Now I'm left with a bad aftertaste. If John ever finds out, he will question everything about their relationship. He already believes all women are liars, now it would be confirmed that Missy was just one of them. He already believes the Hurlingfords are b-ards, now he has reason to think Missy was a true Hurlingford and played him to get his money and to keep Byron with the Hurlingfords. After all, that's what happened.
And then we have Alicia. I don't like the sexualization of her. In the beginning, there is no reason to believe she's a biche, so when she turns out to be that, it doesn't fit the image we have received of her. Olive was very well characterized in The Blue Castle, and she was just being a conservative bimbo. I don't see the reason to why the Italian driver was introduced to the story, and why he had to grope Alicia in the bright daylight... uh. That was another stupid thing with this book. I don't understand why Colleen thought that was an improvement to Olive.
She could have changed the looks of Missy and John. Make Missy a grey mouse, wearing greys among the flower colors of the other girls, make the other girls English roses with brown hair and blue eyes, and John the son of a Jew, dark and mysterious. Then Missy could have worn green, blue, and brown and other colors that fit well with the Australian forest. The red lace dress... *sigh* Eh, no. Just no.
I like Una. Though I don't understand how that worked.
There are things I like about this, but the things I don't like are more.
Missy isn't clever like Valancy. Her situation isn't the same. We don't get the same urgency or desire or need, to live, as in The Blue Castle. Her awakening just doesn't sound real. We know Valancy had been seeing and thinking these things, all the time condemning her silly relatives, so when she finally has her outburst, we understand it. She just says out loud what she had been thinking. Not so with Missy. With her, it just comes out from nowhere. And it sounds mean, stupid, and childish. Valancy sounded exactly what she was. "I'm not going to play these games any longer", she says. Missy... There just isn't any base on her reactions.
The same thing with her mother and aunts. Their "awakening" also happened without any reason, explanation, any justification. At the beginning of the book, there is no trace of any revolt, objections, discontent, or resentment - all the ladies are silently and submissively accepting the situation as it is, and almost adoring their brothers and male cousins who run the place. Then, suddenly, Missy tells them about things, and they change to the almost total opposite.
And then... how she "got" John. Through lies and deceit. And the book ends with "don't tell him, don't ever tell him". We are assuming she never will. In The Blue Castle, Valancy didn't get Barney through deceit. She was as shocked as he was about the truth. There is no reason why Missy couldn't have told John the truth. We have no reason to believe her tenacity wouldn't have worked without the heart disease plot. Now I'm left with a bad aftertaste. If John ever finds out, he will question everything about their relationship. He already believes all women are liars, now it would be confirmed that Missy was just one of them. He already believes the Hurlingfords are b-ards, now he has reason to think Missy was a true Hurlingford and played him to get his money and to keep Byron with the Hurlingfords. After all, that's what happened.
And then we have Alicia. I don't like the sexualization of her. In the beginning, there is no reason to believe she's a biche, so when she turns out to be that, it doesn't fit the image we have received of her. Olive was very well characterized in The Blue Castle, and she was just being a conservative bimbo. I don't see the reason to why the Italian driver was introduced to the story, and why he had to grope Alicia in the bright daylight... uh. That was another stupid thing with this book. I don't understand why Colleen thought that was an improvement to Olive.
She could have changed the looks of Missy and John. Make Missy a grey mouse, wearing greys among the flower colors of the other girls, make the other girls English roses with brown hair and blue eyes, and John the son of a Jew, dark and mysterious. Then Missy could have worn green, blue, and brown and other colors that fit well with the Australian forest. The red lace dress... *sigh* Eh, no. Just no.
I like Una. Though I don't understand how that worked.