Cassandra was an ordinary woman dealing with some sadly
ordinary problems – having trouble in college and relationships
And then she starts having images of the past, running
into ghosts and shapeshifters – and sprouting magical chains.
Using a novella to introduce a series can work… It can.
In some ways it’s preferable – it allows you to focus on the world and the
characters without having to be concerned with a long running storyline to
introduce, develop and then finish properly. That can be a big ask. Usually the
world building is lost as we’re dropped heavily into a big plot line that tries
to take over the book without having the proper foundation
It’s hard to introduce a character when she’s neck deep
in world saving. And if you’re then going to try and introduce metaplot as
well? It’s a lot
So a novella without the need to introduce more than a
minor plot line? That works. That lets us see the world without having to do
anything too epic – which
is what I mentioned favourably recently.
And I hate to play one book against the other but if that is how you use a novella to introduce a series, then this is the very opposite.
Quite literally – we had the world setting take a hefty
back seat, character development given an attempt with very little development
to make her appealing and topped off with what I guess was supposed to be an
epic storyline but was so rushed, undeveloped and confused that it was almost
jarring. We were setting up a big dark menace, one apparently as old as witch
burning that is fixated on the main character and I thought we were going to
see the beginning of several books of conflict instead of it just… ending. Why
set up such a vague epic threat and deal with it so casually?
The story itself feel like a stream of consciousness exercise.
The protagionist neither drives anything nor explores anything. She wanders
around, has a weird experience in a club, wanders some more, randomly decides
to go running because woo-woo then we have info-dumpy ghosts (ghosts? In another
realm? Yes? No? Maybe? Relevance? Because she could have found a book, a
recording, a passing Cheshire Cat – all would have made exactly the same impact
on the book). She runs around with a werefox who, again, could be any
supernatural creature who is fairly hot. I would say he’s a generic guide but
that would require him to actually guide her instead of just wandering around
with her following. The go to a spooky shop. It’s spooky. The shop keeper gives
her grief about being all sexual so she can flare up but she doesn’t actually
buy anything so… why is she here? Why is this scene here?
Oh and on that? I’m all for a woman owning her sexuality and resisting slut shaming – but why is she running around in leather hot pants and a midrith boob tube when going to see a guidance counsellor? That reads less like “sexual woman who resists shame” and more “teenaged cry for help.” There’s “people are slut shaming me” and “people are wondering why the hell I’m dressed like this at this time and in this place?” “Aha old woman judging me for my sexiness, I will pose until she looks away embarrassed” would be a great rejection of judging on appearance and dress if that woman’s disapproval could have just as easily as been “my gods woman do you not understand the concept of business casual?” as much as “you whoreslutjezebel.” What happens in book 2? Does she challenge misogynist standards of dress by going to a board meeting in thing and pasties? (I was going to use “meet her president” but…. Yeah, I don’t even have to finish that sentence).
We learn nothing about the world – we don’t know why she’s
having flashbacks, why her magic manifests as chains in her arms, what that
means, why she could so easily defeat a centuries old threat, why she’s having
lots of flashbacks to times gone bye. What are these supernatural creatures?
Why do they care about her? What does any of this means?
We learn little about her. She briefly mentions her
mother but that’s about it. She’s struggling in school but we don’t really
examine that or why she’s changing her major every 5 minutes. She has a friend
but no real look at their relationship. Hints of bisexuality but everything’s
just in such a rush and blink that it’s hard to say anything definitive beyond
throwaway lines or jokes between her and her roommate and a cringworthy “everyone
is bi” line.
A lot of questions aren’t answered in this book – but above
all is the question “why do I care”? Why should I return to this series? There’s
not enough about Cassandra to invest me. There’s not enough about the world to
give it any real character to encourage me to explore. There’s no relationship
that intrigues me. There’s no plot hook, no meta and really nothing which makes
me want to pick this book up again. I actually looked at the blurb for this
book to figure out what to write on my top summary and then closed it down
again because the blurb only slightly resembles what actually happens in this
book.
