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A review by lectriza
Crystal Blade by Kathryn Purdie
2.0
Sonya screwed up one too many times, man. I'm done.
I'm a firm supporter of letting your protag mess up. Let them be human, flawed, let them commit terrible acts, let them struggle and hate and be angry, let them screw up so bad it seems unfixable.
But you gotta do it in a way that provokes the reader's empathy and not their hatred. Sonya was unbearable-- I guess because she kept doing really stupid, awful things, but never truly facing the consequences. I get that it's hard to write a broken, guilt-wracked and devastated narrator but... that's what Sonya should have been. She was way too calm & mellow after the crap she pulled. If Anton meant as much to her as she said he did, then her betrayal of him should have WReCKED her. (what she did to him... man it was awful like HECK it was awful for me that crosses a line) Yet... she was just sad for a bit and then she was pretty much back to normal.
I still enjoy Purdie's writing style, but the characters and plot were a bit grating. Okay, they were last time too but I cut a little more slack since it was the first one. Unfortunately there wasn't much improvement in the sequel. I can't decide whether I should bother with the third one.
I'm a firm supporter of letting your protag mess up. Let them be human, flawed, let them commit terrible acts, let them struggle and hate and be angry, let them screw up so bad it seems unfixable.
But you gotta do it in a way that provokes the reader's empathy and not their hatred. Sonya was unbearable-- I guess because she kept doing really stupid, awful things, but never truly facing the consequences. I get that it's hard to write a broken, guilt-wracked and devastated narrator but... that's what Sonya should have been. She was way too calm & mellow after the crap she pulled. If Anton meant as much to her as she said he did, then her betrayal of him should have WReCKED her. (what she did to him... man it was awful like HECK it was awful for me that crosses a line) Yet... she was just sad for a bit and then she was pretty much back to normal.
I still enjoy Purdie's writing style, but the characters and plot were a bit grating. Okay, they were last time too but I cut a little more slack since it was the first one. Unfortunately there wasn't much improvement in the sequel. I can't decide whether I should bother with the third one.