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A review by sbelasco40
The Runaway Queen by Cassandra Clare, Maureen Johnson
1.0
Putting the content of the book aside for a moment, let's talk about the medium - it's interesting to me that ebooks have made it possible to publish what are essentially one-shot short stories individually, being as the short story market in printed fiction is basically nil. The audiobook was cute, too - Blagden does a good job of giving the different characters different personas, and his voice itself is very pleasant.
I think even if I haven't been reading sections of Les Miserables lately - the original French revolution soap opera - I'd be distressed about the fact that this story wants us to sympathize with a superficial dandy with little to no political allegiances who at one point equates vampires with the peasants, all dangerous and predatory and out to get the rich. Who writes a book that wants us to sympathize with Marie Antoinette? I mean, seriously. If this was intended as irony perhaps it went over my head, but I'm never going to think someone's a hero because they rescue the worst of French queens - and not even for any sense of duty, but basically to impress some pretty boy Bane wants to sleep with. The characters in general are paper-thin, the grasp of French revolutionary politics is tenuous, and Bane himself is like a caracature. How hard is it to be fearless when you have superpowers? I know Magnus Bane is supposed to be this mysterious and fascinating figure in Clare's Mortal Instruments books, but there's nothing interesting about him here. He just seems like a shallow idiot who shows up too late and picks the wrong side of the fight.
I think even if I haven't been reading sections of Les Miserables lately - the original French revolution soap opera - I'd be distressed about the fact that this story wants us to sympathize with a superficial dandy with little to no political allegiances who at one point equates vampires with the peasants, all dangerous and predatory and out to get the rich. Who writes a book that wants us to sympathize with Marie Antoinette? I mean, seriously. If this was intended as irony perhaps it went over my head, but I'm never going to think someone's a hero because they rescue the worst of French queens - and not even for any sense of duty, but basically to impress some pretty boy Bane wants to sleep with. The characters in general are paper-thin, the grasp of French revolutionary politics is tenuous, and Bane himself is like a caracature. How hard is it to be fearless when you have superpowers? I know Magnus Bane is supposed to be this mysterious and fascinating figure in Clare's Mortal Instruments books, but there's nothing interesting about him here. He just seems like a shallow idiot who shows up too late and picks the wrong side of the fight.