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cassberrie 's review for:
Roseblood
by A.G. Howard
Sigh. I'm not really sure what to say about this.
I was so excited for this book when A.G. Howard announced that she was writing a PotO-retelling. I suppose that I should have been a little more wary, though, considering the style of her Splintered series. I liked Splintered and the "weird"ness of it fit with the crazy nature of a Wonderland retelling, but it doesn't really work with a Phantom retelling. Often I found the writing to be over-convoluted, so much so that I would just have to skim because there were so many parts that felt unnecessary.
Also, can we please talk about the twist? Why psychic vampires? Why vampires at all? Did Miss Howard just really want to set this in the modern-day, and for that she needed to give Erik some sort of immortality? While true, the idea of vampires would suit a gothic story like Phantom, there was something off about the way it was executed. The concept of psychic vampires was too whimsical for me and I just couldn't take the book seriously.
The romance was bland. That tends to be the problem when you have thesoulmates trope. Who needs genuine connection, anyways? Thorn had an interesting backstory but was a fairly boring character. Rune (what leads a parent to name his/her child "Rune"?) too was flat. There were no stakes with this romance, and no chemistry. I'm not particularly upset that the romance was between Rune and the Phantom's adopted son (t'would be awkward to read an Erik/not-Christine story), but the execution was just so poor. It's a story of beauty and the... beauty? Thorn is pretty, but "beastly" inside. I use quotes because there wasn't much that was actually bad about him, except for the angst. Such angst.
At least there was representation at RoseBlood. A Latina and an Asian and a gay character! I was pleasantly surprised to see all three of these characters in this book. Alas, why were Rune's friends and enemies more interesting than Rune herself? Speaking of enemies, I actually liked Kat, the obligatory YA mean girl, more than I liked Rune, simply because Kat worked hard to get where she was. She might have been mean, but I'd be more than a little prickly if I had spent my whole life training my voice only to be upstaged by someone just born with a magical singing voice. I sympathized with the Carlotta-character more than I did with the protagonist.
Honestly, the overall story felt like it was all over the place. The fact that the author spent so much time being vague about Erik's grand plan just frustrated me. Why does Erik own a nightclub? *shrug* I feel like he'd be way too old-fashioned and classy for that, even if it serves his purposes. Why does the Phantom own a red swan? Where did he get the red swan from? Why are there always feline sidekicks in A.G. Howard stories? At some point it stopped being a PotO story and turned into a dark, paranormal, special-snowflake-protagonist YA book with faint traces of PotO.
In short, I was disappointed by this book. I guess the author's overall style just didn't fit with this type of book, even if it worked so well for her other series.
I was so excited for this book when A.G. Howard announced that she was writing a PotO-retelling. I suppose that I should have been a little more wary, though, considering the style of her Splintered series. I liked Splintered and the "weird"ness of it fit with the crazy nature of a Wonderland retelling, but it doesn't really work with a Phantom retelling. Often I found the writing to be over-convoluted, so much so that I would just have to skim because there were so many parts that felt unnecessary.
Also, can we please talk about the twist?
The romance was bland. That tends to be the problem when you have the
At least there was representation at RoseBlood. A Latina and an Asian and a gay character! I was pleasantly surprised to see all three of these characters in this book. Alas, why were Rune's friends and enemies more interesting than Rune herself? Speaking of enemies, I actually liked Kat, the obligatory YA mean girl, more than I liked Rune, simply because Kat worked hard to get where she was. She might have been mean, but I'd be more than a little prickly if I had spent my whole life training my voice only to be upstaged by someone just born with a magical singing voice. I sympathized with the Carlotta-character more than I did with the protagonist.
Honestly, the overall story felt like it was all over the place. The fact that the author spent so much time being vague about Erik's grand plan just frustrated me. Why does Erik own a nightclub? *shrug* I feel like he'd be way too old-fashioned and classy for that, even if it serves his purposes. Why does the Phantom own a red swan? Where did he get the red swan from? Why are there always feline sidekicks in A.G. Howard stories? At some point it stopped being a PotO story and turned into a dark, paranormal, special-snowflake-protagonist YA book with faint traces of PotO.
In short, I was disappointed by this book. I guess the author's overall style just didn't fit with this type of book, even if it worked so well for her other series.