Kristen britain

[Maze353]

I started it but ended up skimming after a chapter or two. I just don't remember enough to make the story interesting. I'll try it again later.  

[NightIntent]

Yeah, that's what I'm kind of worried about, too. But I don't have enough motivation to re-read the other books... I have so many other, better books to read for the first time that it's basically not worth the time right now.

This makes me kind of sad. A book shouldn't make me feel this way.  

[Maze353]

Me too, especially when I remember how much I enjoyed it the first time. Good luck! wink  

[NightIntent]

I hate Karigan.

I started reading Blackveil and I just don't like the characters anymore. gonk Not remembering the previous books is actually a benefit, though--I forgot all my old grievances with the characters. XD So far, it's kind of boring and a little confusing (lots of references of past events that I totally don't remember because it's been like three years), but not as painfully irritating as I was expecting. Yet. We'll see what happens as I progress.  

[Maze353]

Good luck  

[NightIntent]

Okay so. Update. I'm a little less than halfway through it. You may be amazed at how rapidly I am reading this book, given how irritating it is. There is a very good reason why.

Nothing happens.

I am over 250 pages in and there has been very little plot movement. So annoying plot twists... none. Yet.

Except Alton is going to fall in love with Estral. They met for like five pages and I can already tell. White for potential spoiler, but really not a big part of the plot so far and mostly conjecture.

This author loves to foreshadow in the most ridiculous ways. I forget what sentence it was or what it was foreshadowing, but I remember thinking at the end of one chapter, "Oh yeah, that's not totally obvious..."

So: Long story short, roughly halfway through and all it is is a lot of vascillation. (I can't remember if there's an S in that word or not but it looks funny without it and I don't have the motivation to look it up so the S stays.)

I half hope the book picks up so that something at least happens and half hope that nothing happens so that's the only thing I can complain about.  

[Maze353]

For as long as it takes for her to write these books you'd think they'd be... more sophisticated (I guess that's the word I'm looking for). And aren't writers supposed to get better as they write more? She seems to be getting worse.  

[NightIntent]

I agree. She should be able to put a plot together with less set-up than this by now. And she is definitely getting worse.

I haven't even had time to read any more the past couple days. XD  

[NightIntent]

Around page 400 things finally kind of start happening. Karigan is now in Blackveil. Someone is going to try to kill her. Hummingbirds are evil. At least now there is a little bit of plot movement.

I was right about Alton and Estral. And Karigan's reaction was worse than I ever could have imagined. rofl I can't remember how old she's supposed to be, but she acted kind of like a 13-year-old. And Alton isn't exactly the most mature person in the world in that situation, either. Oy. Just when I start to not hate the characters....  

[Maze353]

Have they ever acted like mature adults? This whole thing got started because Karigan ran away from school for fighting.... xd  

[NightIntent]

...True. But still. It's been like three years in the books. They should have matured a little. I feel like they're back-tracking. There aren't really any consistent characters in the books. I dunno. Whatever. We'll see what happens with the rest of this one I guess. Maybe it'll get better...  

[NightIntent]

All right, well... I finished it.

For such a long book, essentially nothing happened. The ending is a giant cliffhanger, yet I'm not left wanting to read more/anxious to get the next book (whenever the heck that's gonna come out). It was a lot of build-up for a relatively short resolution, Karigan is going to take the entire next book to get home probably, I have no idea why she introduced the entire Amberhill storyline into the books, and overall pretty unsatisfying.

I think this series is a prime example of what English teachers always tell kids what not to do when they're writing stories: Show, don't tell. The author tells us a lot of stuff, but there's very little showing of why anything happens.

I'm glad I didn't get this book in hardcover.  

[Maze353]

I agree with you. I feel like there isn't any real planning of the characters or plotting of the story line. She just writes it as it pops into her head and it ends up with these odd tangents and characters that don't act "right". It needs to be evened out and all the plot-lines need to be stitched together neater.

When I got to the end and saw that ending my whole reaction can be summed up as: stare  

[NightIntent]

Pretty much.... I don't know how no editor tears her to pieces.  

[Maze353]

So, the next book Mirror Sight comes out May 2014.