Started: 20/08/19
Finished: 20/08/19
Spoilers: No.
I enjoyed this more than the last book, I think; mainly because I’ve never liked Jack or Jill, but always quite liked Kade. He’s featured more prominently in this one, along with a few other old characters and a couple of new ones.
That being said; Let’s talk about Cora. She was pretty damn cool. I really liked that she was a plus-size character that didn’t give a shit about her size. I love that the author openly described her as fat and didn’t shy away from the word out of fear of offending readers. The word fat shouldn’t be used as an insult anymore and there shouldn’t be any stigma about being fat.
Fat and thin are only adjectives, and Seanan Mcguire does a great job of showing us how meaningless the word truly is. It’s only offensive if we allow ourselves to be offended. If we stop seeing words as swords and instead use them as shields, it’ll be harder for people to hurt us.
The author always does a fantastic job with regard to representation yet again. Sexual orientation, trans, PoC, plus size, disabilities, she always features diverse characters and they’re never defined by ‘what makes them diverse’, it’s simply another layer to their character. Just another thing that makes them real. As far as the characterisation and development go, I can’t fault Seanan Mcguire. She just writes believable characters and that’s that.
And one other thing; the dialogue was so great in this one. So much better than book one which felt weird and clunky. This one was smooth and natural.
Where I struggle with these books a little, however, is the plots - not so much the idea of it, it was the idea behind this series that drew me in - but I think perhaps the execution always feels a little lack-lustre to me. I think the fact that the books are so short, makes it difficult for me to invest in the story-lines, but at the same time, I think I’d get bored if they were any longer than they are.
It’s a strange half-way limbo position to take, where I both wish they were longer and I’m glad that they’re not.
The worlds are great, well built and explained and I have no problem visualising them. Confectionery is one of the nicer worlds we’ve seen from this series thus far and I didn’t expect the story to take us here before starting. I went into this one pretty blind, knowing it would be about one of the original characters at least. (kinda thought this would be a Kade story, but was very pleasantly surprised with Cora instead).
I think all the business with the queen resolved itself way too quickly and easily. Given that this is the shortest book of the series so far, it could’ve easily been a little longer, just to draw out the tension of those chapters featuring the queen. Because of the rushed conclusion, I never had the time to truly invest in the stakes. There was never a feeling of doom or dread in me because the plot was moving on before I had the chance.
But overall, I quite liked this one. Probably my favourite in the series so far, but I’m still not overly convinced by this series, tbh. I love the idea of it in theory - it sounds great - but in practice, it always leaves me feeling a little bit hollow
Not sure yet if I’ll continue. As I don’t own the next book, probably not, or at least not for a long while. As this was the better book of what’s been - for me - a rather average series, maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead.
Thank you 😊
“If we stop seeing words as swords and instead use them as shields, it’ll be harder for people to hurt us.” 🙌 Nicely done.