Week 15
Onwards, April.
Also, Camp NaNoWriMo, which is passing much easier than I thought it would.
Hey, antidepressants are kind of fun, huh?
#20) REDSHIRTS by John Scalzi
What a fun little meta-narrative!
I’ve always really liked this stuff. Yes, it can be overplayed, and yes, it can be kitschy and goofy, but whatever. I’ll always enjoy something drawing attention to its fictional-ness and playing in that space.
Especially with something like this, which draws attention to the “forgotten” characters - ie, the Redshirts. I really liked watching these characters, stewing in the misery of their existence, figuring out the reason for why they are so frequently unlucky, and so frequently seized by nonsensical urges.
If I had one gripe, it’s that the cast is kind of white-bread. I would have really liked to see characters more clearly breaking the mold that they were in, to especially see representations of queerness, particularly in what is so clearly a Star Trek parody. However, this book was published in 2012, and even at that, I’m not sure John Scalzi is the guy to tell that story (not that I have anything against the guy, of course).
The best part of the story was probably the coda, which really tied everything together and brought a human element to the side characters of even this story, not leaving it all unturned. It also gave a definite conclusion that I wasn’t entirely expecting it to. All in all, a fun little book.
#21) DOWN COMES THE NIGHT by Allison Saft
Oh this book and I went on a JOURNEY together.
Generally, I liked it. I have a couple issues, but there were enough pros to outweigh the cons.
First, the whole set-up and idea of the plot is really fun. It’s high fantasy meets gothic horror, and the introduction of these elements felt pretty natural and kept the ride entertaining. The gothic elements were there, the creeping dread in an old house, and it was really neat to see magic just casually interspersed.
Like many things, the atmosphere fell apart a little bit as the story progressed. I thought it lost focus, and therefore some of my interest. Furthermore, the characters (particularly Wren, the main character) made some choices that were genuinely baffling, both wildly naive and unbelievably silly.
My overwhelming feeling was that the story, and the characters, tended to move in the direction of whatever would be most dramatic, regardless of established characterization or lack of foreshadowing.
I did like that much of the story focused on the kindness and emotionality of the main character, and how these traits, perceived by the people around her as weakness, actually turn out to be her strengths. I’m never not going to go for a story like that, even if I do wish that she wasn’t also extremely naive and unable to see obvious plot twists coming.
Also, while I generally liked the romance, I did think it moved a little fast - Wren gets over her years-long questionably-requited crush AND falls madly in love with someone who was previously her enemy in the span of, as far as I can tell, two weeks. I think if it had been dialled back slightly, I’d buy it a little more.
I did go back and forth on Una, her ex, as the story progressed (see previous comment about characters seemingly changing their minds to provide maximum drama). Ultimately, I was glad with how her story ended up.
Also, I’m gonna address this because I can see it being an issue people have: yes, the main character is bisexual, and she ends up with a man. Specifically, she chooses a man over a woman. While I have some issues with the specific writing of these characters, I don’t have any problems with that as a plot element.
Like I said, I did generally enjoy this book by the end, and I was caught up pretty easily in the story. However, I will say that I was taken significantly out of the story by a passing reference to St John’s Wort, in a fantasy world in which St John (presumably) did not exist.