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wyrmdog 's review for:
Rosemary and Rue
by Seanan McGuire
While I liked the book overall, 3 stars may be stretching this one given that 2 stars means it is 'okay' when I hover over it.
Everyone and their dog is going to recap the plot, so as usual, I won't. What I will do is talk about how the main character is thoroughly off-putting to everyone, yet they all love her anyway (seriously, how?). I will talk about how she is an engine of destruction via her recklessness, yet never really owns the fact that her idiotic rush gets people killed. She says, "I'll blame myself," but in a tone that indicates she really isn't to blame in her own mind, only that she feels some guilt rather abstractly. I'll talk about how the final scene is an exercise in frustration as character after character acts like a moron just so we can have some exposition.
Faerie is not my favorite way to do urban fantasy, but it didn't put me off, so that's something.
An interesting thing about this book is that for all the sexualized visuals (like a fight where October is pantless and possibly even more exposed depending on how you read it - more exposed is how I read it), and some gorey ones, it's remarkably low on the scale for graphic descriptions of sex and violence. I don't mind graphic stuff, but a lot of readers do, and that element may appeal to them. Even the big murder was sanitized a bit and the one sex scene was fade-to-black. She spends quite a few scenes in the middle of the book repeatedly losing her clothing, but it mostly makes sense in context (sometimes I read something and wonder how a character *didn't* lose their clothing).
I plan to read the next one just to see how it goes, if it improves. Overall, I like Toby's snark though I wish at times it were sharper. I am hopeful she becomes more competent and there is less stumbling about until someone tells her what's going on. But I cannot wrap my head around why all these people she treats like crap seem to like her anyway. And I am sure the one character that seemed to hate her that was never dealt with will either be shown to be a villain later, or will come around to loving October like everyone else. Or I suppose that character could end up dead. But I am sure there's no real middle ground here.
So here I am complaining the whole time but I think I liked it.
Everyone and their dog is going to recap the plot, so as usual, I won't. What I will do is talk about how the main character is thoroughly off-putting to everyone, yet they all love her anyway (seriously, how?). I will talk about how she is an engine of destruction via her recklessness, yet never really owns the fact that her idiotic rush gets people killed. She says, "I'll blame myself," but in a tone that indicates she really isn't to blame in her own mind, only that she feels some guilt rather abstractly. I'll talk about how the final scene is an exercise in frustration as character after character acts like a moron just so we can have some exposition.
Faerie is not my favorite way to do urban fantasy, but it didn't put me off, so that's something.
An interesting thing about this book is that for all the sexualized visuals (like a fight where October is pantless and possibly even more exposed depending on how you read it - more exposed is how I read it), and some gorey ones, it's remarkably low on the scale for graphic descriptions of sex and violence. I don't mind graphic stuff, but a lot of readers do, and that element may appeal to them. Even the big murder was sanitized a bit and the one sex scene was fade-to-black. She spends quite a few scenes in the middle of the book repeatedly losing her clothing, but it mostly makes sense in context (sometimes I read something and wonder how a character *didn't* lose their clothing).
I plan to read the next one just to see how it goes, if it improves. Overall, I like Toby's snark though I wish at times it were sharper. I am hopeful she becomes more competent and there is less stumbling about until someone tells her what's going on. But I cannot wrap my head around why all these people she treats like crap seem to like her anyway. And I am sure the one character that seemed to hate her that was never dealt with will either be shown to be a villain later, or will come around to loving October like everyone else. Or I suppose that character could end up dead. But I am sure there's no real middle ground here.
So here I am complaining the whole time but I think I liked it.