Wicked Lovely Review...
Oct. 29th, 2008 12:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starvinbohemianWell, I just finished reading Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
Back-of-Book Synopsis: Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. When the rules that have kept Aislinn safe from them stop working, everything is suddenly on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything. Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning twenty-first century faery tale.
I picked up the book in an attempt to see what passed for mainstream Young Adult fantasy lit these days, seeing as how I'm in the process of writing one and it's been a while since I picked one up that wasn't Twilight. And, if I'm honest, then the pretty cover may have also drawn me in. Anyway.
This book was light years better than Twilight, which probably goes without saying, but I don't think I'd actually recommend it to anyone. The writing itself isn't bad, but it isn't great either. There are a few characters I loved (Donia-- okay, maybe just Donia), an intriguing enough plot, and creative use of faery mythology interwoven with modern society. The protagonist, despite being named Aislinn, is not a Mary-Sue, though I can't say that I particularly liked or cared about her nonetheless. Unfortunately, her love interest, Seth, is a Gary-Stu, something apparently the author's own friends complained about, according to her notes at the back. "He's too perfect," they said. I agree. He's so clearly Marr's ideal man that it hurts.
Marr apparently has a Masters in Gender Studies, and it definitely shows. I can't say that the random feminism is go moments didn't come across as anvilicious, but I still appreciated the effort. Go you, Marr.
Some Criticisms:
*I did have one major squick, and that involved the BIG REVEAL about Aislinn's mother. I won't spoil you, but ewww. Bad implications!
*Not so much a squick as a pet peeve was Marr's obvious affinity for emo/psuedo!gothness, not helped by her own author's picture depicting her wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas sweatshirt that she must have gotten from Hot Topic. Her characters are similarly obsessed with body piercings and won't stop waxing poetic about them. That got old. The author seems too old for that kind of crap. If I don't put up with it in fan fics, then I'm not going to here.
*I don't know how I feel about her actually using the acronym WTF in her book, but I'm leaning towards don't do that.
For those of you reading this who read or write YA,
What exactly is allowed, sexuality-wise, to be depicted in a YA book? Because, ZOMG, I think Seth went down on Aislinn in one scene. No details or anything, but pretty clear in what was happening. Is that allowed now in YA fiction? I'm constantly debating with myself on how much I'm going to be allowed to get away with in my own novel-in-progress, so this was a major WHATZIT moment for me. Not to make myself sound old or anything, but the books I read from the YA section when I actually was a YA-- while definitely presenting sexual elements-- never went that far. Maybe? I don't know. "Fuck" gets thrown around a bit, too. I can do that? Can I?
Anyway, a decent enough book. 3 1/2 stars out of 5. (0 being Twilight and 5 being Annette Curtis Klaus' Blood and Chocolate.)
Back-of-Book Synopsis: Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. When the rules that have kept Aislinn safe from them stop working, everything is suddenly on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything. Faery intrigue, mortal love, and the clash of ancient rules and modern expectations swirl together in Melissa Marr's stunning twenty-first century faery tale.
I picked up the book in an attempt to see what passed for mainstream Young Adult fantasy lit these days, seeing as how I'm in the process of writing one and it's been a while since I picked one up that wasn't Twilight. And, if I'm honest, then the pretty cover may have also drawn me in. Anyway.
This book was light years better than Twilight, which probably goes without saying, but I don't think I'd actually recommend it to anyone. The writing itself isn't bad, but it isn't great either. There are a few characters I loved (Donia-- okay, maybe just Donia), an intriguing enough plot, and creative use of faery mythology interwoven with modern society. The protagonist, despite being named Aislinn, is not a Mary-Sue, though I can't say that I particularly liked or cared about her nonetheless. Unfortunately, her love interest, Seth, is a Gary-Stu, something apparently the author's own friends complained about, according to her notes at the back. "He's too perfect," they said. I agree. He's so clearly Marr's ideal man that it hurts.
Marr apparently has a Masters in Gender Studies, and it definitely shows. I can't say that the random feminism is go moments didn't come across as anvilicious, but I still appreciated the effort. Go you, Marr.
Some Criticisms:
*I did have one major squick, and that involved the BIG REVEAL about Aislinn's mother. I won't spoil you, but ewww. Bad implications!
*Not so much a squick as a pet peeve was Marr's obvious affinity for emo/psuedo!gothness, not helped by her own author's picture depicting her wearing a Nightmare Before Christmas sweatshirt that she must have gotten from Hot Topic. Her characters are similarly obsessed with body piercings and won't stop waxing poetic about them. That got old. The author seems too old for that kind of crap. If I don't put up with it in fan fics, then I'm not going to here.
*I don't know how I feel about her actually using the acronym WTF in her book, but I'm leaning towards don't do that.
For those of you reading this who read or write YA,
What exactly is allowed, sexuality-wise, to be depicted in a YA book? Because, ZOMG, I think Seth went down on Aislinn in one scene. No details or anything, but pretty clear in what was happening. Is that allowed now in YA fiction? I'm constantly debating with myself on how much I'm going to be allowed to get away with in my own novel-in-progress, so this was a major WHATZIT moment for me. Not to make myself sound old or anything, but the books I read from the YA section when I actually was a YA-- while definitely presenting sexual elements-- never went that far. Maybe? I don't know. "Fuck" gets thrown around a bit, too. I can do that? Can I?
Anyway, a decent enough book. 3 1/2 stars out of 5. (0 being Twilight and 5 being Annette Curtis Klaus' Blood and Chocolate.)
