Froi of the Exiles

Book Title: Froi of the Exiles

Author: Melina Marchetta

Series: The Lumatere Chronicles #2

Date Started: March 13th 2019

Date Completed: March 27th 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

I didn't enjoy Froi of the Exiles as much as I enjoyed the previous book, but it was still a story I flew through and didn't want to end. I think for me it was a little more contained and based around court politics than Finnikin of the Rock, which was a lot more of a fantasy adventure. More Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings this time, I suppose.

It's not often that I marathon books in a series one after the other. I think it can sometimes make it slower since you don't get to breathe between stories, but it actually works nicely here. There are slight gaps of time between each novel but they very much build on the situation of the last episode, following how the politics and situation has developed but gently bridging the space of relationships and character arcs.

Froi of the Exiles didn't have second book syndrome, which is a pet hate of mine in trilogies. I'm going to put that down to Marchetta treating each book as its own story rather than a chapter in a trilogy (as it should be). Although Froi didn't wrap up its story in quite as satisfyingly as Finnikin did, the arc of the story completed what it initially established enough that it wasn't a waste to read - a middle part to tide over time before the big finale. Which means that I'm now even more excited for that big finale which must be coming in the next book.

When I have characters I'm already attached to in a series, I find it quite hard to care as much about the new ones. So, even though we're following Froi and his story, I have to admit I spent most of the book waiting for Finnikin or Isaboe's chapters. In all fairness, I definitely don't dislike Froi as I used to, but it was still a shame I wasn't as engaged in him as a protagonist. That being said, even if I'm not in love with all the characters, I can still keep track of what is an enormous cast set in a high stakes political world without getting confused.

As I've said, Froi was a little disappointing just personally after reading Finnikin, but I'm going to start right away on Quintana of Charyn anyway. The end is near, and I think it's going to be quite the read.

Finnikin of the Rock

Book Title: Finnikin of the Rock

Author: Melina Marchetta

Series: The Lumatere Chronicles #1

Date Started: March 11th 2019

Date Completed: March 12th 2019

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

This has been sitting on my kindle for many years at this point from a friend's recommendation. While I wish I had picked it up sooner it was actually the perfect thing I needed these past few days. I read it in about 24 hours in three sittings, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Finnikin of the Rock is a good old fantasy adventure, one that borders on slightly more traditional high fantasy. Basically, it's a lot of fun. There are some things that don't add up (he really doesn't recognise her? she isn't emotionally scarred for life? they fight like dogs and still make up so easily?) but I'll forgive it because I literally only put this book down because I had to get up and, you know, go to university.

Maybe having Evanjalin experience pretty much every horror humanity is capable of and still being a badass is (while hugely enjoyable) a little unnecessary, bordering on overkill. It feels a bit like it's there to show how terrible everything is and give her a reason to be strong, which we recognise as being a little problematic these days. However, these brushes of feminism - while slightly outdated to a reader in 2019 - were amazing. It actually created a really nice balance in the medieval-style fantasy world that we can't help but imagine dominated by men and started to close that gap with its various portrayals of women.

In fact, it was a good cast all around. Varied and enjoyable. They had nice dynamics with each other and it felt like there were a lot of backstories underneath that came through in their behaviour rather than having to be explained (which, in all fairness, we did get a fair bit of). But while focusing on Finnikin, it achieved that wonderful fantasy expectation of having multiple perspectives and characters that had influence and agency in the story, making it unpredictable and exciting.

I really respect how it wraps up its story and its emotional arcs in one book. It's maybe a little bit older than the trilogy-obsession that swept Young Adult literature when I was a teenager, and it benefits from that. I know there are more books in the series, but I can tell each will be its own story expanding on the world already created. Marchetta does justice to her characters by allowing them to go full circle without interruption and, because of that, it's so much more enjoyable to read.

Finnikin of the Rock was so much fun and I will be picking up the other books in the series, even if I'm not sure they follow my favourite characters. I'll still go for them for the chance of catching a glimpse or a reference, and stay because I have faith Marchetta will have another fantastic story to tell me.

The Cold is in Her Bones

Book Title: The Cold is in Her Bones

Author: Peternelle van Arsdale

Date Started: March 3rd 2019

Date Completed: March 11th 2019

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Two Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Two Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I didn't do well with this book for a number of reasons, even though it sounded right up my street. This is inspired by Medusa? Only as far as the snakes in her hair. And just because you show women suffering doesn't make it feminist - I think that's approaching the opposite, actually.

I get that it's building up to be a commentary on female hysteria. The girls hearing things in their heads as they get older that go against everything the village says and expects of them. Of course, there's a magical realistic element in the way that snakes literally grow from their heads and whisper to them, but it's essentially about historically the oppression and punishment of women. I get that. But it's so forcefully/melodramatically done that it doesn't make its point. At times it feels like the opposite argument.

Milla is so passive and fragile, and then suddenly so stubborn and 'empowered' that the whole thing is just hard to swallow. Maybe if you had some other characters around her that were written to have different sorts of personalities, it would've balanced out more. Yes, they're all under the same oppression, but people react in different ways. I don't believe that within a generation every female of the species became quiet, docile and unassuming. Yes, there is a fantastical element being used to give creative freedom, but it's still essentially a story about a human being. And Milla wasn't there as that for me.

I got 42% through this book. I'm sure the story goes somewhere eventually but I don't care to find out where. I think it's a real shame the author/publisher wanted to go for the Young Adult market just so they could throw in some brutality because it could've been a really good and progressive kid's book (that feels like one already) if they had treated it properly.

Vengeful

Book Title: Vengeful

Author: V.E. Schwab

Series: Villains #2

Date Started: February 19th 2019

Date Completed: March 1st 2019

Genres: Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Action, Thriller

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

Vengeful was fun, but it was confused. I ended up enjoying it more from nostalgia than the actual story, which is disappointing honestly. I love Schwab's stories and writing but I haven't had the best of luck with them recently.

Yay girl power, I guess. But for all the emphasis on strong female characters, they don't really do anything in the end. The battle is still fought and won elsewhere (something I'll get to in a moment). There are definitely glimmers of pure strength from the women, moments where they each make an assertive, active choice that is a challenge for them. And while, yeah, Marcella is a badass, she's kind of a token centrepiece that is eventually pushed to the side - which is damn ironic considering her whole characterisation.

Where Vengeful lost me was when it decided not to be true to its own story. Is it Marcella's story? Because it feels like it's trying to be. You can feel the enthusiasm radiating off the words in her chapters, and she's a very interesting character. So then why is the climax not hers? Why is the arc and resolution of the whole novel separate? Because it isn't her story, really. It's still Victor's. Which is fine, but not when you steer away and confuse the narrative from it in the middle 300 pages because it's not moving yet - and especially not when you let us get attached to Marcella in those pages, only to leave her to dwindle in the actual conflict.

To me, it felt like it wanted to tell something new, but couldn't let go of old characters. I wonder if maybe not having Victor and Co. in until maybe halfway through when they actually become a part of Marcella's story would have been more compelling. (That seems to be how it's being marketed, I mean she's on the damn cover, she's the prologue of the novel, she described three times as many times as anyone else). You'd have the audience on their seats waiting for him to appear too. But that wouldn't work with the current story because it's not Marcella's story at all, it's Victor's. I think we're just misled somewhere in the middle about that.

What was nice was getting to learn about all the characters in more depth. People like Mitch, Dominic, people that we know from the first book but were only really sidekicks. Although, unfortunately, it didn't really need to be there. In fact, at the end of my edition of the book there's a short novella following Rios, and it could have been literally lifted from the first half of this book which consists almost exclusively of additional exposition. Like I said, interesting, but not a part of this story. And considering its nearly 600 pages, it really isn't necessary and convolutes the story even more.

I loved Vicious, so I'd definitely recommend everyone read it. Whether you continue on to Vengeful is your own choice, because I don't really know what to advise. I think I would've preferred to leave Vicious as a stand-alone story, but I can see other people liking the chance to see the universe expanded enough that they'll let go of its flaws.