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A review by rubeusbeaky
Into the Dying Light by Katy Rose Pool
2.0
This book was terribly, TERRIBLY, boring. I get what it was trying to say: about the importance of free will; the difference between faith and dogma; and the two-sided coin which is love, how people will do both great and terrible things in the name of love. But I never felt like the book was delivering its messages /well/. Sometimes it was too heavy-handed, other times too abstract, it was messy. And a book has to be balanced between its messages and its STORY. This /story/ was blah :/. The characters travel aimlessly, endlessly, aware that they have no plan and no powers, and in the last 20 pages are handed the answer a la Dorothy had the ruby slippers all along!
It would be one thing if the heroes were hitting rock bottom before the finale, a hopeless /moment/ before rallying to save the day. But when I look back on the trilogy as a whole, I see how ineffectual our merry band was.
Book 1 - Was at least interesting, getting all the principle players in the same space at the same time, and introducing all their personal conflicts and key abilities... They were flawed in a fun way!
Book 2 - Threw all of that out the window to have our heroes hunt down McGuffins which THEY KNEW shouldn't be in the same place at the same time, or else bring about an apocalypse... But they did it anyway... Because book's got to book, I guess. So all the interesting aspects of how these characters behave, clash, or work together, were diminished to exalt the importance of these special shinies.
Book 3 - Throws the shinies out the window, too!! Now, the most special special SPECIALS are dead Prophets, who just give their magic away to our heroes. The protagonists "choices" don't /really/ matter, their friendships are tenuous and forced because, hey, the world is ending right the beep now, so what are they going to do, deny this chance for a magical power-up and die?! And up until the point that they receive said power-up, each "friend" is snipping at the other "How dare you throw your life away to try and save the world!" "How dare YOU put your life on the line when countless others are dying?" So much, "I love you, dangnabbit!" that it was painful, actually unfun to read. The stakes are so disproportional:
- World ending.
- Usurper needs deposing.
- Aaaand "why don't you love me enough to survive The Apocalypse?!"
Really? Why are these three different threads being given equal time and weight? They are not equal conflicts, whatsoever! XD
The griping, the hopelessness, the ineffectuality of our heroes... all to be deus ex machina'ed away at the end, was very dissatisfying. Why introduce characters with diverse abilities, if they're all going to be leveled and equaled in the finale? Why introduce powerful McGuffins not to use them? Why write 500 pages agonizing about choices, when really there are none?
I also gave the first book a lot of respect for being diverse, and being inspired by cultures I don't normally get to see front-and-center in a YA novel. BUT, I lost all of my respect over books 2 and 3, which lost most of the diversity it had set up, and just turned into Christian fanfiction. The name of God has the power to create, destroy, and grant the total knowledge and power /of/ God. The sacred grail - sorry, chalice. The perversion of the flaming sword. The Garden, now being tended by a gay couple instead of Adam and Eve. Where, in the beginning of the series, it seemed like the author was finding inspiration in blending a lot of ancient cultures, giving nods to how multiple religions/cultures have common roots... the series going forward seemed to double-down on being a Christian story for teens. "Hey, it doesn't matter what you were taught; just trust your heart and don't be a selfish d---! Now, who wants a shoutout to their favorite part of the Bible?! Yeeey, Anton gets a Jesus reference! Look at you, alive again after 3 days!" It was more interesting, and more emotionally impactful to me when the series was drawing inspiration from real-world religions and cultures for its world-building (so it was grounding the fantasy in something relatable), than when it was just making shoutouts to Bible passages but adding a twist (making it only relatable to people who have studied the Bible). I mean, thanks for the PSA that one can be both Christian and gay. But I wish that the books had more to say than that, in the end.
It would be one thing if the heroes were hitting rock bottom before the finale, a hopeless /moment/ before rallying to save the day. But when I look back on the trilogy as a whole, I see how ineffectual our merry band was.
Book 1 - Was at least interesting, getting all the principle players in the same space at the same time, and introducing all their personal conflicts and key abilities... They were flawed in a fun way!
Book 2 - Threw all of that out the window to have our heroes hunt down McGuffins which THEY KNEW shouldn't be in the same place at the same time, or else bring about an apocalypse... But they did it anyway... Because book's got to book, I guess. So all the interesting aspects of how these characters behave, clash, or work together, were diminished to exalt the importance of these special shinies.
Book 3 - Throws the shinies out the window, too!! Now, the most special special SPECIALS are dead Prophets, who just give their magic away to our heroes. The protagonists "choices" don't /really/ matter, their friendships are tenuous and forced because, hey, the world is ending right the beep now, so what are they going to do, deny this chance for a magical power-up and die?! And up until the point that they receive said power-up, each "friend" is snipping at the other "How dare you throw your life away to try and save the world!" "How dare YOU put your life on the line when countless others are dying?" So much, "I love you, dangnabbit!" that it was painful, actually unfun to read. The stakes are so disproportional:
- World ending.
- Usurper needs deposing.
- Aaaand "why don't you love me enough to survive The Apocalypse?!"
Really? Why are these three different threads being given equal time and weight? They are not equal conflicts, whatsoever! XD
The griping, the hopelessness, the ineffectuality of our heroes... all to be deus ex machina'ed away at the end, was very dissatisfying. Why introduce characters with diverse abilities, if they're all going to be leveled and equaled in the finale? Why introduce powerful McGuffins not to use them? Why write 500 pages agonizing about choices, when really there are none?
I also gave the first book a lot of respect for being diverse, and being inspired by cultures I don't normally get to see front-and-center in a YA novel. BUT, I lost all of my respect over books 2 and 3, which lost most of the diversity it had set up, and just turned into Christian fanfiction. The name of God has the power to create, destroy, and grant the total knowledge and power /of/ God. The sacred grail - sorry, chalice. The perversion of the flaming sword. The Garden, now being tended by a gay couple instead of Adam and Eve. Where, in the beginning of the series, it seemed like the author was finding inspiration in blending a lot of ancient cultures, giving nods to how multiple religions/cultures have common roots... the series going forward seemed to double-down on being a Christian story for teens. "Hey, it doesn't matter what you were taught; just trust your heart and don't be a selfish d---! Now, who wants a shoutout to their favorite part of the Bible?! Yeeey, Anton gets a Jesus reference! Look at you, alive again after 3 days!" It was more interesting, and more emotionally impactful to me when the series was drawing inspiration from real-world religions and cultures for its world-building (so it was grounding the fantasy in something relatable), than when it was just making shoutouts to Bible passages but adding a twist (making it only relatable to people who have studied the Bible). I mean, thanks for the PSA that one can be both Christian and gay. But I wish that the books had more to say than that, in the end.