March Reading Log – Smadronia
March only saw 3 books read by me, which is a shame. I’m 9 books behind on my reading goal of 60 for the year, so I really need to step it up. I did get a dose of nostalgia in this month, with an Encyclopedia Brown book, which was fun. So, here’s my reading log.
Encyclopedia Brown, Super Sleuth – Donald J Sobol
I loved Encyclopedia Brown as a kid. I wanted to be a cross between him and Harriet from Harriet the Spy (without it all backfiring). So when I saw him mentioned somewhere, TV tropes perhaps, I went to see if the library had a copy of one of the books. Not only did they, but it was an ebook with no wait. Score!
I made it through the book in less than an hour, trying to guess the answers along with the boy detective. There’s a couple I missed, but it was otherwise fun. I knew who took the $100 bills when someone mentions Benjamins, and why the robber was banging on trees, so it was nice to know a 10 year old hadn’t outsmarted me, yet.
The Belles – Dhonielle Clayton
The Belles is set in the fictional world of Orleans, where people were cursed by a god to be colourless. Their skin was grey, their hair like straw, and their eyes a glowing red. The Goddess of Beauty created the Belles, who were born into the world with colour in their skin, and the ability to use the arcana to put colour into normal people. For centuries, the Belles have been trained to bring beauty to the populace.
Camellia is a Belle, and not content with just being a Belle. She wants to be the favorite, the one who serves the royal household and keeps them beautiful. That Belle is considered the most talented in the land. Camellia’s hubris costs her the initial chance at being the favorite, but she’s given a second chance when she replaces the original favorite.
Even before she ends up at court as the favorite, Camellia realizes things are not as she’s been brought up to believe. The number of appointments and demands are far more than she realizes, making her exhausted, and she’s facing her toughest client yet: Princess Sophia.
I really enjoyed it. The world is a steampunk one that is really freaking awesome! There are tiny airships running around that carry messages, or who snoop on people’s conversations for the news. Bigger ones show moving pictures of people, and there’s clockwork and steampunk related stuff everywhere. It’s really, really cool. And they have teacup pets. Giraffe, dragons, dogs, etc. The stuff isn’t explained in lots of detail, since to Camellia this is mundane every day stuff.
The plot is an interesting one, reminds me of books about boarding schools where there’s a clique, and the movie Mean Girls. There’s a clique, and Camellia, wanting to fit in, falls for the evil involved in the clique. Someone ends up dying, and since she was the only real representation of gay people in the book, it upset me. I’m really tired of the ‘bury your gays’ trope.
Camellia’s got a love interest in the book, but it doesn’t go as expected, and I kind of liked that. For a change, it’s not love at first sight, everything will be awesome. It’s more complicated, which is a refreshing change. There’s a hint at a love triangle, but it’s pretty much quashed by the end of the book.
This was the final installment of the Thone of Glass series. It came out earlier this year, but I was lazy and was a book behind (see my February Reading Log for that book). This tied up things pretty well, while still leaving enough things open for novels, short stories, etc etc.
Aelin has been captured by Maeve, who we’ve found out isn’t the Fae Queen everyone thinks she is. Rowan is trying to rescue her, while Lysandra is pretending to be her, and Aedion is leading the army. Dorian and Manon went off to find to Croachen witches, and Chaol and Nesryn are due to return in this book, with the Khagan’s army. I think that catches us up with “As the Throne of Glass turns” because I swear this book is kind of a soap opera in the making.
So, the book seems like a lot of filler to me, and too many characters and points of view. I mean, it’s interesting, and I enjoy seeing the various ways the characters interact, but there’s a lot of nothing happening for a while, because Maas had to get characters into certain spots for it all to happen. Maas plots the books like Aelin plotted getting her throne: it’s all complicated, and she had to look way far in the future to be able to get things to line up. They do line up, but this last book is both complicated and boring.
Overall though, I felt it was a reasonably satisfying conclusion to the series. Aelin closes the gate, and the gods are shitty creatures, because that keeps with the whole theme of the gods in this world. Aelin gets some revenge, which I like. I don’t like how they loopholed the idea that someone had to give up their self to close the gate, but I don’t think we could have a book where the main character just dies 70% into the final book, and it still turn out happy.
There were a surprising lack of deaths of named, known characters in the book. There’s one chapter though, chapter 90 or 91, where there’s a string of deaths, and I was crying so hard I woke up my cat. Mozzie came over to me to comfort me and to try and get me to stop crying SO. DAMN. HARD. I’m okay with some deaths, but those were ones I wasn’t expecting (but I should have) and characters I really liked.
The last few chapters of the book closed things off pretty well, along with ensuring that the Valg weren’t going to come back and cause trouble. It tied up enough loose ends that I was happy, but left the adventures of the side characters open enough that if Maas feels like revisiting them, there’s an opening. And then there’s the flower that blooms at the end, which was a nice touch.