*COURTESY OF NETGALLEY*
You know what it was about this book that
took my breath away? Had this plot arc originated in my head, I would have it
written the exact same way. That
doesn’t mean I loved this book to the ends of the earth and depths of hell, no.
I just shared a fun fact with you.
Allow me to paraphrase: I don’t really like
the way I write (with regards to a full-fledged novel) and I’m still trying to
find my voice. But hey, tomorrow NaNoWriMo’s beginning, and I’m living in
eternal hope.
Moving on.
Since I started with the writing style of
this book, I might as well get over with it. I liked it (yay!) but didn’t love it – it felt like a really long short story. There was a
prologue-ish sort of intro to the first chapter, and then the plot continues in
a very thespian fashion – the whole novel is a flashback that brings the book
to a full circle. The third person narrative brings in the drama-esque flair to
the novel. Only Aidan and Beth and to an
extent Tori and Koji are actually fleshed out satisfyingly well; the others
were merely acting their parts, and I couldn’t get a read on them. Maybe that’s
the way it was intended to be, so no major judgement there.
And The
Melody of Light.You have no idea how much
I’ve been berated, damned, harangued for my instinct to assume everything
is crap and then search for proof that it’s good and find it and only then like
it. So obviously, I mistrusted the title’s seemingly overly pandering title, until – wait for it – I found the reason to like it (and that
reason made me go “Oh!”). I love the title now.
Riley and Beth make a very realistic couple
(not that I have any idea about the mechanics of lesbian couples, but these two
rock the mechanics of a general realistic couple – I suspect that’s the
author’s experience working out the finer details there). There is no shortage
of soppy dialogues and everyone knows it (at one point Riley appoints Beth as
the “beacon of light” in her dark life and then says, “it’s cheeseball, but
true.”) But, I didn’t cringe at them, since they made sense. (Although I do
wish they could have been phrased in a way that wasn’t cheeseball-ish.)
And Aidan. AIDAN. I could write poems and
epics glorifying his name. He is the combination of what all the Weasley boys are
(yes, I use present tense, I refuse to accept Fred’s dead, okay?) to Ginny, he
is the Atticus and Jem double combo to Scout, he is the Darry and Soda to a
(okay, forgive me) girly- Ponyboy. He ticks every box of “Are you the Perfect
Older Brother to Problematic Sister?” and I LOVE him. Don’t worry, my feelings
are very chaste and sisterly.
And then the ending happened, which should
not have made me leak two tears because:
a) Hello, I read Chapter One, so I should have
predicted this.
b) It gave me a la “Roth Was Trying To Create
A Sensation When She Killed Off Tris In Allegiant” deja-vu.
You know, when we
are speaking of unnecessary deaths in YA-famous literature and all.
On that note, Happy Halloween people. I am
virtually celebrating a Hollywood-Glorified-Almost-International-Observance-Because-India-Doesn’t-Effing-Observe-One.
Can you see my Hermione Granger costume through that screen of yours? I treated
myself with a laddoo, so ha.
No comments:
Post a Comment