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A review by burningupasun
Arrow's Fall by Mercedes Lackey
2.0
Setting/World Building: 4/5.
Main Character: 4/5
Other Characters: 3/5. Kind of disappointed by the lack of depth to the villains.
Plot: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Triggering/Issues: 2/5. Character death, but even worse, rape followed by torture (of the sexual sadist variety). Also triggering is the way the aftermath is handled (or rather, the way it isn't really handled at all).
AVERAGED TOTAL:3.1 out of 5, rounded to 3. 2.8 out of 5, rounded down to 2, after a few days had passed and I was still mad.
Oh, how this book disappointed me. I think one of the worst parts about this book is that it HAD all the makings of what could have been a great book. The previous two set up Talia coming into her own, and I thought here we were going to get the sort of climax, the real big test of her powers and strengths. There were political machinations and tensions between two realms, and in my head I could see it building into this epic battle where Talia has to use her powers to help them all save the day. But instead... Instead the book hit me with three whammies in a row and then it was all downhill from there.
So what happened? Well it all started with...
And it never gets better, it really is all downhill from there. As I was reading it, I thought, the only way this could be salvaged is if it was at least used. If Talia used it to harden, to become stronger, maybe to try and get her revenge and go to the brink of going overboard, like they'd hinted she had been in the past, only to stop herself and be the better person, etc etc. But none of that happened. In fact, Talia is bafflingly barely present in the second half of the book. She's rescued by Dirk, who "fetches" her using his magic. After that, literally all she does is tell people what happened and get healed. This massive battle passes with her only influence being helping link some people together so they can kill a mage. I mean sure, she's there, but she's not there in the way she should be. These are Talia's books! It should be about her coming full circle and becoming the person she was Chosen to be! In the end, the "drama" over the enemy isn't even wrapped up. I assume that's to carry over into the next trio of books but frankly, it seemed kind of half-assed, like she just cut them off so she could end with the wedding.
Even worse, the rape and it's effects on her are literally never handled. She off-handledly mentions to Skif once that being touched by men affects her, and then literally two pages later it's a week or so later and poof, she's magically mind-healed and fine with getting married and having sex with her husband, tra la la. Compared to how the author at least tactfully handled Talia's issues with abusive men in the first book, I was SO disappointed by how it was handled in this one. It was so pointless, so why did she even need to get raped to begin with? It didn't affect anything, it didn't do anything, it was another case of someone pointlessly using rape as some way of getting across how "horrifyingly evil" the villain is, and then just sweeping it under the rug!
To be honest, it was so infuriating that I can't even spend much time on the other things that bugged me, like the stupid forced pseudo-love triangle that was really just the cause of all three of them thinking things and then never talking to each other. I hate when plots are like that. If your plot is only continued along by you making sure the characters just silence their thoughts and don't say anything even though they know they should, than it's dumb.
After the first two novels, which I loved so much, reading this one was a major disappointment best summed up by this gif:
Just imagine me happily opening this book and then realizing what's inside. That's pretty much exactly what happened...and to be honest, I'm not even sure how it got to 3 stars... probably because I do still like the world and the characters, I just really, really hate what was done to them and the plot. So, so disappointed.
ETA: After 2 days, I was still SO UPSET about the book and what happened, that I gave in and knocked it down to 2 stars, which frankly, it should have been the whole time.
Main Character: 4/5
Other Characters: 3/5. Kind of disappointed by the lack of depth to the villains.
Plot: 2/5
Writing: 2/5
Triggering/Issues: 2/5. Character death, but even worse, rape followed by torture (of the sexual sadist variety). Also triggering is the way the aftermath is handled (or rather, the way it isn't really handled at all).
AVERAGED TOTAL:
Oh, how this book disappointed me. I think one of the worst parts about this book is that it HAD all the makings of what could have been a great book. The previous two set up Talia coming into her own, and I thought here we were going to get the sort of climax, the real big test of her powers and strengths. There were political machinations and tensions between two realms, and in my head I could see it building into this epic battle where Talia has to use her powers to help them all save the day. But instead... Instead the book hit me with three whammies in a row and then it was all downhill from there.
So what happened? Well it all started with...
Spoiler
Kris' death. That hit as hard as it should have, but I was okay with it, I was. Sometimes, the good people have to die and I think it's important to show that. But then, literally a page or two later, Talia gets captured, stripped, raped, beaten, thrown into a cell. She's then tortured by the 'baddies' of the book (who were unfortunately very one-dimensional so far), who of course are sexual sadists who get off on torturing her, which feels to her (in her own words) like being raped all over again.And it never gets better, it really is all downhill from there. As I was reading it, I thought, the only way this could be salvaged is if it was at least used. If Talia used it to harden, to become stronger, maybe to try and get her revenge and go to the brink of going overboard, like they'd hinted she had been in the past, only to stop herself and be the better person, etc etc. But none of that happened. In fact, Talia is bafflingly barely present in the second half of the book. She's rescued by Dirk, who "fetches" her using his magic. After that, literally all she does is tell people what happened and get healed. This massive battle passes with her only influence being helping link some people together so they can kill a mage. I mean sure, she's there, but she's not there in the way she should be. These are Talia's books! It should be about her coming full circle and becoming the person she was Chosen to be! In the end, the "drama" over the enemy isn't even wrapped up. I assume that's to carry over into the next trio of books but frankly, it seemed kind of half-assed, like she just cut them off so she could end with the wedding.
Even worse, the rape and it's effects on her are literally never handled. She off-handledly mentions to Skif once that being touched by men affects her, and then literally two pages later it's a week or so later and poof, she's magically mind-healed and fine with getting married and having sex with her husband, tra la la. Compared to how the author at least tactfully handled Talia's issues with abusive men in the first book, I was SO disappointed by how it was handled in this one. It was so pointless, so why did she even need to get raped to begin with? It didn't affect anything, it didn't do anything, it was another case of someone pointlessly using rape as some way of getting across how "horrifyingly evil" the villain is, and then just sweeping it under the rug!
To be honest, it was so infuriating that I can't even spend much time on the other things that bugged me, like the stupid forced pseudo-love triangle that was really just the cause of all three of them thinking things and then never talking to each other. I hate when plots are like that. If your plot is only continued along by you making sure the characters just silence their thoughts and don't say anything even though they know they should, than it's dumb.
After the first two novels, which I loved so much, reading this one was a major disappointment best summed up by this gif:
Just imagine me happily opening this book and then realizing what's inside. That's pretty much exactly what happened...
ETA: After 2 days, I was still SO UPSET about the book and what happened, that I gave in and knocked it down to 2 stars, which frankly, it should have been the whole time.