Rating: ★★★★
Leigh Bardugo, you trickster, you. For a moment there, you had me fooled. You really did. If I could give you a slow clap over the internet, I totally would. In fact, scrap that. You deserve a standing ovation. Congrats. I feel like an idiot, but congrats nonetheless.
Not everyday do I get shocked by a book. No, I mean it. Generally a book starts somewhere, and leads to a destination you could probably guess if you tried hard enough. Sometimes, there are books in which you actually can't predict the ending at all, and your jaw hits the ground with a resounding thud when the ending eventually comes. You cherish those books, especially if the ending lived up to the climax.
Then, very rarely, there are those books that make you feel like it's heading one direction, and you immediately assume (because, let's face it - we're all pretty cocky when it comes to predicting endings) in your haughtiest manor that 'We can ALL guess where this is leading, it's obviously going to end in world domination/an unnecessary explosion/the 'shocking' discovery of adultery/an apocalypse/Jason Grace getting knocked out etc' You carry on reading, rolling your eyes. You know better, right?
But then, the unexpected happens. Before you know it, Percy Jackson got knocked out, and Jason Grace actually appears to a battle on time. And fucking wins. In what alternate universe?! In other words, the book swerves and suddenly, you find that instead of the happy little roller coaster you thought you were cruising on, it turns out that the tracks were in your imagination all along and that ACTUALLY YOU'RE FREE FALLING WHERE THE HELL IS THIS HEADED HOLY SHI-
This. Is. That. Fucking. Book.
Those who have read my first attempt at a bookhaul, you will understand my pain when it comes to The Selection by Kiera Cass. I found it dismal, and I was utterly confused how anyone could possibly love it. And I sort of struggled to put it into words, and what came out just seemed to be an angry stream of words. Near the middle of this book, I was seeing the similarities all two well. It seemed to have the usual tropes that made me despise The Selection to the degree I do now. Let me elaborate.
1. Seemingly 'normal' female lead with small-town boy love interest is deemed unworthy of any love or attention. She's poor. Things suck.
2. Lives in oppressive society, with elitist government not doing anything to help the poor and suffering. A.K.A female lead is sad blahblahblah
3. but there's a tWIST.
4. BIG TWIST
5. GIRL IS ACTUALLY SPESHUL. SPESHUL SNOWFLAKE.
6. HAHAHA IN UR FACE TO THE PPL WHO WERE MEAN TO ME I WUD LIKE TO DEDICATE THIS SPEECH TO U SUCKERS BYE HATERZ
7. Big-high-up-powerful-intimidating guy who everybody lusts after shows interest. The sort of internalised misogyny ensues that goes along the lines of 'ur not like other girls because obviously the rest of the female race is stupid and vapid ur into other stuff like ur own speshulness'
9. BIG KISS
10. Nina throws book across the room because where the fuck did that even come from you're like the most powerful man in the country and you're gonna start developing romantic interests in some idiot-
""Why would you care what I think?"
He look genuinely baffled. "I don't know," he said. "But I do."
And then he kissed me.
It happened so suddenly that I barely had time to react. One moment, I was staring into his slate-coloured eyes, and the next, his lips were pressed to mine. I felt that familiar sense of surety melt through me as my body sang with sudden heat and my heart jumped into a skittery dance. Then, just as suddenly, he stepped back."
Where in the hell did that even come from?!
If you're struggling to see the awkwardness there, let me put it in context for you. They were having a completely normal conversation. They weren't talking about their unbelievable and crappy
It kind of played out like this in my head.
Oh, it was funny, good times, good times.
The most powerful guy in the history of, well, ever, the guy who has managed to create a reputation of fear and resentment, the same guy who is known as 'darkling' for god's sake, who has crazy cool thunder powers, the guy who's probably as old as a freaking dinosaur, is developing feelings for a somethingteen girl who's controlled by her raging hormones and shiny new light powers?
Right.
But I digress. It gets worse.
11. The romantic ambiguity ensues - constant whining from the protagonist, plucking petals from daisies to work out if 'he loves me, he loves me not'. Nina finds the nearest bathroom, locks herself in it, and cries over the stupidity of certain YA heroes.
12. Literally - and this is one of the worst parts - the protagonist completely forgets about her 'old' life. She absolutely ignores all the suffering and pain she underwent in this armpit of a society before she discovered how speshul she was. Distracted by her pretty face, pretty dresses, pretty architecture, pretty everything. She completely ignores the people who were born without Grisha powers and who are suffering in poverty, forgets it all. She's completely ignoring all of the corruption around her. She's engulfed by it, following the propaganda like a sheep.
13. This was the part where I received extreme second-hand embarrassment. There comes a point in both Shadow and Bone and The Selection, of which the female lead is treated as Forgettable Love Interest No.1000's prodigy. Or something like that. To be honest, I think that's being too kind to accurately phrase the way both America and Alina are treated. In Shadow and Bone, it was in the form of the Darkling basically treating Alina like a trophy, showing her to everyone like "ooh! Look what I found! A pretty girl! I unlocked her potential! I did that!''
It sort of went down like this:
Alina: A pretty dress! It's in black! The darkling's colour!! OMG!!!1!111!!!
Forgettable Background Character No.240: OMG. Wear it!! He so has a crush on you!!!!! No-one else can wear black be honoured (yes, people. That is how ridiculous this society is)
Alina: I'm wearing it because I'm not like other girls, right!!
Forgettable Background Character No.240: Right!! Omg, the Darkling's coming!!!!
The Darkling: Nice tits
*Alina and FBC fan themselves*
Darkling: Right so I have a ton of people who want to see your powers so do the light thingy because...urr....we will start a revolution or something? Yeah, we can be powerful and shit and take over - I mean...make the world a better place...
Alina: Like, okay!
*Alina does light thingy*
Audience reacts like
*queue random make out*
14. but there's aNOTHER TWIST.
15. JEALOUS LOVE INTEREST RETURNS
16. Then...there's...another twist. The book becomes self-aware... but...this wasn't something the Selection had... which left me in a state of confusion and... trepidation?
Example A:
""You're wearing his symbol," he observed, glancing at the little gold charm that hung from my neckline. "His symbol and his colour."
"They're just clothes."
Mal's lips twisted in a cynical smile, a smile so different from the one I knew and loved that I almost flinched. "You don't really believe that."
"What difference does it make what I wear?"
"The clothes, the jewels, even the way you look. He's all over you."
The words hit me like a slap."
But then I dismissed it. I thought that it was a one off, something used by the author to make us dislike Mal. But then...this self awareness. This overwhelming knowledge of what the book was doing carried on, until a delicious discovery was made by the main character. For the first time since she came to Grisha court, she started using her good-old-fashioned sense again and didn't just dither, sitting there pathetically pulling off daisy petals, she actually did something.
I probably need to confirm: all of this, every single act of ignorance was on purpose. This was character development, people. Leigh Bardugo was playing us like a fiddle, making us all confident about the direction the book was taking, until she yanked the rug out from under our feet and we were sat there wondering how we could get so badly tricked.
It seems like I'm using metaphors a lot in this review. Whoops.
Obviously, I'm hugely exaggerating the character's personalities. I don't think I can recall a single moment in this novel where the Darkling goes 'nice tits', so the 180 is utterly plausible. I have turned these characters into caricatures for the sake of an 'entertaining' book review.
The last part of the book is tied up in gorgeous self discovery, a healthy and fucking fantastic romance, and a super amazing adventure that brings up so much nostalgia for the main characters that I just sort of sat there wondering where the hell things changed. You work out the true intentions behind characters, and I found at one point I was actually cheering the main character on, yes, out loud, and screaming, also out loud, when the worst happened.
This book mocked the Selection, mocked the tropes it functioned on, and I loved it. Convincing character development for the win.
NOW I WANT THE NEXT BOOK.
Side note: did I tell you guys it was set in a Russian-like environment? Because it is. And it rocks. Read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment