Scan barcode
A review by _rusalka
The Blood Spilt by Åsa Larsson
1.0
I rather enjoyed the first book in this series, so I am a little disappointed that I am now done with this series.
First up, if you have a character on the dust jacket/cover - particularly if they are the ONLY named character on there - don't translate their name to something different INSIDE the book. I spent 100 pages wondering when on earth this Matilda would show up.
Also, if the name of the character is Matilda, you do not have to translate that into English. That is a common English name. There is a famous children's book called [b:Matilda|39988|Matilda|Roald Dahl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388793265l/39988._SY75_.jpg|1015554], which now has a famous musical made of it, and copious movie adaptations over the past 32 years. It was the 10th most popular baby name for girls in Australia in 2019. We even have a song which is one of the most famous bush ballad/folk songs in Australia that was written in 1895 called "Waltzing Matlida". I mean, FFS. Why was Sven-Erik okay for us precious English speakers, but not Matilda? Also, why translate names at all?!?
If you do feel like you need to translate a name, you need to do it like with like. For example, if the character was called Emilie, then you would choose Emily or Emma say. You would not choose Edith or Edna. They are a different generation of names, and evoke different images. So why on earth did you choose Mildred? I kept on thinking of our mate Mildred as a tiny, little old lady of 85+ and kept on being jarred back to thinking of her as barely 50 year old smashing the patriarchy and taking on the establishment. It was really off putting.
Now, Rebecka (not translated, note). I don't understand why this is the Rebecka Martinsson series. It really should be the Anna-Maria series. That woman is a boss and is the real main character of this book. I just didn't care about Rebecka.
And WTF was with the wolf? Really, she should have written a short story about the wolf if she felt so strongly about it. I feel like there was a whole allegory or metaphor in the wolf bits that I am not smart enough to comprehend. They were a really unwelcome interruption in the flow of the novel. Particularly as the author would plonk them in the middle of a chapter too, not in their own little section, so you felt like there should be more you should be getting than you were.
And then we have the sheer amount of weird decisions people made in this book, which had me yelling "Why?!?" randomly while reading. Which I must say Lexx didn't really bat an eyelid at.
So I am done. I had the 6th book sitting there that I picked up cheaply waiting for to get to it. It shall be moved on.
First up, if you have a character on the dust jacket/cover - particularly if they are the ONLY named character on there - don't translate their name to something different INSIDE the book. I spent 100 pages wondering when on earth this Matilda would show up.
Also, if the name of the character is Matilda, you do not have to translate that into English. That is a common English name. There is a famous children's book called [b:Matilda|39988|Matilda|Roald Dahl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388793265l/39988._SY75_.jpg|1015554], which now has a famous musical made of it, and copious movie adaptations over the past 32 years. It was the 10th most popular baby name for girls in Australia in 2019. We even have a song which is one of the most famous bush ballad/folk songs in Australia that was written in 1895 called "Waltzing Matlida". I mean, FFS. Why was Sven-Erik okay for us precious English speakers, but not Matilda? Also, why translate names at all?!?
If you do feel like you need to translate a name, you need to do it like with like. For example, if the character was called Emilie, then you would choose Emily or Emma say. You would not choose Edith or Edna. They are a different generation of names, and evoke different images. So why on earth did you choose Mildred? I kept on thinking of our mate Mildred as a tiny, little old lady of 85+ and kept on being jarred back to thinking of her as barely 50 year old smashing the patriarchy and taking on the establishment. It was really off putting.
Now, Rebecka (not translated, note). I don't understand why this is the Rebecka Martinsson series. It really should be the Anna-Maria series. That woman is a boss and is the real main character of this book. I just didn't care about Rebecka.
And WTF was with the wolf? Really, she should have written a short story about the wolf if she felt so strongly about it. I feel like there was a whole allegory or metaphor in the wolf bits that I am not smart enough to comprehend. They were a really unwelcome interruption in the flow of the novel. Particularly as the author would plonk them in the middle of a chapter too, not in their own little section, so you felt like there should be more you should be getting than you were.
And then we have the sheer amount of weird decisions people made in this book, which had me yelling "Why?!?" randomly while reading. Which I must say Lexx didn't really bat an eyelid at.
So I am done. I had the 6th book sitting there that I picked up cheaply waiting for to get to it. It shall be moved on.