One of my goals of 2017 was to work my way through some of the historical fiction books that have been sitting on my bookshelves and collecting dust. One of my goals of 2017 was to work my way through some of the historical fiction books that have been sitting on my bookshelves and collecting dust. While historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, I go through spurts of reading solely historical fiction versus picking up only one or two books from the genre per month. In an attempt to rectify this unbookwormly habit, I've been incorporating historical fiction works more regularly into my reading. Therefore, I decided to kick off the summer by tackling Code Name Verity.
With respect to my tastes in historical fiction novels, I have a fascination with Victorian Era London and World War II settings (yes, I'm aware, the two couldn't be more different). Nevertheless, I expected Code Name Verity to be right up my alley, and due to all of the hype surrounding the series, I was looking forward to reading it. The beginning 50-100 pages, however, rubbed me the wrong way and established the not-so-pleasant tone for the remainder of the novel.
First and foremost, I was completely lost - Verity's narrative jumps headfirst into the middle of her story, providing little context for readers to orient themselves. To make matters worse, the full picture wasn't revealed until the conclusion of the book, leaving me utterly confused and brimming with a host of unanswered questions for the majority of the novel. Furthermore, the book was rather detail-heavy, primarily honing in on aircraft specifics, technicalities, and mechanics that went straight over my head. These unnecessary descriptions only served to bog me down while reading. They could've easily been excluded, and the novel would've captured the same messages and themes while adopting a more interesting tone that placed additional emphasis on the plot and characters.
Based upon Code Name Verity's summary, I was expecting a significantly more action-driven plot, rather than a confusing, far from chronological recollection of seemingly unconnected events interspersed with all too frequent and entirely unrelated details and tidbits of information regarding the war. All in all, the pacing was painfully slow, the narration boring, and both my attention span and interest waned quickly. And yes, I seriously and repeatedly contemplated marking this book DNF, yet I continued pushing onward in the hopes that the ending would serve as the novel's redeeming quality.
Despite my best efforts and intentions with respect to reading Code Name Verity from cover to cover, I was far from enthralled with the ending. While I appreciated the concluding plot twist and its emotional appeal, neither was substantial enough to salvage the book as a whole. And, being the cold, cynical, emotionless human being that I am, it was far from a "heart-wrenching" read for me. The unexpected turn of events was both sad and incredibly unfortunate, yet it didn't leave me with any strong, lasting impressions.
The format of the narration also influenced my perception of the book, as I found the non sequential "diary entry" retellings of past events to add another layer of confusion to the novel. It was difficult to discern past from present events, and the frequent swapping between code names and the characters' actual names did nothing to simplify matters. The writing style, although unique, didn't lend itself well to clarifying an already bewildering plot in which I felt that I was always twenty steps behind and would never fully grasp what was transpiring. The writing itself was haphazard and informal, featuring odd phrasing and the occasional sentence fragment masquerading as a complete sentence.
Additionally, I couldn't distinguish between the narrators' two voices - both seemed identical, sharing similar mannerisms, patterns of speech, and dry senses of humor. Consequently, the two felt interchangeable and nondescript, and I had difficulty connecting with either. To further compound my utter indifference to both protagonists, they exhibited frustratingly minimal growth or character development throughout the novel, remaining disappointingly static and flat. They also had a rather enraging habit of telling rather than showing in their narration. Instead of obscurely hinting at the underlying emotions or tensions in a scene and allowing readers to infer these characteristics, the narrators outright explained these aspects. They might as well have written them in neon highlighter and attached some blinking lights for good measure.
Overall, Code Name Verity was well-researched, historically accurate, and had an intriguing premise, but I couldn't see the appeal. While I was intrigued by both the plot and the characters, the book's execution heavily influenced my rating and my enjoyment (or lack thereof) while reading. I enjoyed what little of the plot I could discern, but the remainder of the book struck me as a tangled web of somewhat related tales that the author had attempted to shove into a cookie cutter plot. The result was not pretty, to say the least.
I immediately fell in love with And I Darken's premise upon reading the book summary and gave very little prior thought to my instinctive decision to I immediately fell in love with And I Darken's premise upon reading the book summary and gave very little prior thought to my instinctive decision to order a copy. Which clearly wasn't feeding my impulsive, entirely uncurbed and mildly out of hand book purchasing habits...
Poorly researched and contemplated decisions aside, there are too few works centered upon Vlad the Impaler, let alone retellings which adapt his persona into a kick-ass, female protagonist. I have an entirely unfounded and likely unhealthy obsession with literary twists on historical figures, particularly Vlad the Impaler. Needless to say, I was instantly intrigued and found myself hooked after the first page.
My love of historical fiction and the origin of Count Dracula's gruesome tale compounded with the overall hype about this series may have ultimately backfired, encouraging me to set extremely high, albeit realistic expectations for this novel. And yes, I do have a knack for setting utterly absurd and entirely impractical expectations when it comes to literature, but I don't believe this was the case when I embarked upon And I Darken. Based upon the plethora of glowing reviews that have been circulating throughout the blogging community for the past year, I was looking forward to an action-packed, blood-filled adventure adorned with beheadings, stabbings, and warfare with a potential side of torture. These hopes were quickly shattered...about 30% of the way through the novel, to be exact.
While the writing itself was phenomenal, the plot left something to be desired - in simplest terms, it was incredibly dry. I'm usually a huge proponent of political intrigue and historical references in literature, but not at the expense of the plot. Unfortunately, the complex political hierarchy and relationships within the novel were such a central focus that they detracted from the overall plot and character development. Personally, I prefer well-developed, plot driven works which have adopted a decent balance between heart pounding, action-laden scenes and more sentimental, emotionally draining encounters. Upon reading chapter after chapter about alliances, seemingly ceaseless and overly drawn out warfare, and insecure rulers who perceived minute details as a threat to their personal sovereignty, I became less enthralled with And I Darken by the page and began questioning the countless ranting and raving reviews across which I had previously stumbled.
Furthermore, the novel skipped large periods of time with baffling and unnecessary frequency, leading to a choppy, disjointed narration that always managed to leave me bewildered and trailing a few steps behind. The plot wouldn't glance over a few days or weeks - months or years would transpire with a vague, nondescript mention. Perhaps smoother transitions and fewer overall temporal leaps would have resulted in a more fluid read.
One of the novel's strongest qualities was the savage, kick-ass heroine with a feisty temper and a knack for murdering others, not to mention her status as the female equivalent of Vlad the Impaler. I appreciated Lada's cruel and emotionless impassivity, which was unexpectedly refreshing and provided an interesting perspective on unfolding events. I admired her fierce, unrelenting determination in an age when females were expected to fulfill the role of a docile, subservient house wife. Her independence and refusal to conform to societal expectations highlights the novel's unique characteristics, particularly with respect to the young adult genre.
Similarly, I also enjoyed Radu's character, which severely offset Lada's and provided for an interesting dynamic between the two. While Radu's weak, docile personality and spineless interactions with others served as a source of both pity and frustration, his character was beautifully realistic and innocent.
While romance was not the novel's primary focus, a peculiar love triangle arose that I admired for its originality but strongly disliked on account of its execution (as well as its occasional evolution into a peculiarly-shaped quadrilateral that never should have seen the light of day). These relationships were not well incorporated into the plot - romance would serve as the highlight of three or four chapters before completely disappearing for the next 70 pages. I would have preferred a more seamless transition between the dense political scenes and these emotional encounters.
All in all, And I Darken reminded me of a watered down Game of Thrones wannabe that was severely lacking in character development, heart-wrenchingly unexpected betrayals, backstabbing, and gruesome, bloody scenes (additional stabbings/beheadings/bodily injuries would have been greatly appreciated - in the least sadistic manner possible). I readily found myself drowning in unwanted historical references and painfully lengthy discussions of political maneuvers. Frustratingly, many of these references were mentioned once and never referred to again, leading me to question their original purpose. Unfortunately, there were far too many yawns and unplanned naps invoked, leading to a less than desirable reading experience.
Despite my love-hate relationship with And I Darken, I plan to finish the trilogy primarily out of curiosity and a small glimmer of hope that redemption is possible. While I'm not overly optimistic about the final two installments, I'll be going into them as open-minded as possible and crossing my fingers for a slightly better outcome.
Fun fact: my laptop's autocorrect has decided to rewrite history, and I would now like to introduce you to Vlad the Inhaler. You're welcome....more
It's been quite awhile since I've picked up a YA thriller, and I figured, in the spirit of Halloween, The Diviners would be the perfect spooky read. IIt's been quite awhile since I've picked up a YA thriller, and I figured, in the spirit of Halloween, The Diviners would be the perfect spooky read. I buddy read this book with Kathy at The Novelty of Life and Cassandra at CC's Books for the 2015 All Hallows' Read.
While The Diviners is quite lengthy at 578 pages, it was an intense, exciting read from start to finish with a variety of unexpected twists and turns. The small subtleties and nuances in the plot ensured that I had no chance whatsoever of predicted the eventual outcome, even in my wildest dreams, which is always a perk. It was also intriguing to read the narrative from a variety of different perspectives, watching how seemingly unrelated tales and characters wound together into one cohesive story. The amount of research that went into crafting a story that took place in the 1920s was incredible, contributing to the realistic and enticing world-building.
I immediately fell in love with both the horror and mystery components of this novel. As a horror movie and book fanatic, I'm not easily frightened, but The Diviners had me lurching awake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. Needless to say, Bray has certainly mastered the art of writing chilling, nightmare-invoking horror novels. Furthermore, you ultimately realize that the solutions to the complex, multifaceted questions posed by the novel have been staring you in the face for the last 100 pages, and you've simply been too distracted to pick up on these seemingly minute details. Bray did an excellent job of weaving together ostensibly unconnected facts and events, resulting in a compelling, heart-pounding read.
I had only two complaints, the first of which was the seemingly juvenile characters. Evie in particular was characterized by her impulsive, immature actions throughout the novel, which tended to land her in quite a bit of trouble. She was also overly trusting and somewhat naive with respect to the normalcy of crime and deception among the populace of New York City. As children tend to do, she assumed that she was knowledgable on a vast array of topics, many of which she knew little about in actuality, which merely added to my frustration. Pile on her constant, ditzy references to everything as "the cat's meow" and you're faced with not only an unpleasant character but grating, repetitive dialogue to go along with it. My hopes of significant character growth and improvement were unfortunately dashed due to her relatively static personality.
Conversely, some of the minor characters, while they could have done with a bit more development early on in the book, had very distinct personalities and traits, and it was interesting to read from their varying perspectives due to the switching third person POV. Each of these characters had his or her own personal subplot which eventually tied into the overarching murders and the unruly spirit of Naughty John. While I wish some of these characters, such as Memphis, would have had some more time in the spotlight, The Diviners set these individuals up for a more prevalent role in later books.
With respect to my final complaint, I disliked the romance, or lack thereof. To begin matters, the book opens with a love triangle, which I absolutely despise (a significantly longer rant on that topic can be found here). While Evie didn't fall in love with the most obvious character, their relationship was severely underdeveloped. They remained in that awkward, pre-dating stage where they're not sure if it's socially acceptable to hold hands or to kiss, which led to a few uncomfortable scenes. I held on to some small shreds of hope that their relationship would improve before the conclusion of the book, but there was minimal change. After completing the book, I would have preferred an absence of romance to the somewhat pathetic, half-hearted attempt that was included.
Overall, The Diviners definitely grew on me and has evolved into one of my favorite young adult thrillers. While not without its flaws, the novel has a host of redeeming qualities, from the intriguing plot to the varying characters and perspectives that are portrayed. The book's historical accuracy and 1920s setting served to further heighten my initial interest and overall enjoyment of The Diviners. And now, I think it's time to get my hands on Lair of Dreams....more
