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A review by fhirdiad
Drowned Country by Emily Tesh
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Just not as good as the first one. This novella is about fairies but they don’t feature until the last 20 pages and I felt like this was really wanting Maud and Mrs Silver to be the main characters but not committing. Maud would have been interesting but she simultaneously takes time away from Silver and Tobias’ relationship struggles and still doesn’t manage to be a substantial character. She’s also just a weird mash of Silver and his mother and every other character is sidelined - especially Tobias - to give her more page time where she just demands to be taken seriously.
I deeply missed Tobias’ perspective; I don’t think this book did Silver justice. He fears the idea of an eternity alone in the Wood without Tobias or anyone else for that matter, but the flashbacks that flesh this fear out are maybe two paragraphs and the end wraps everything up in a bow so he doesn’t actually have to contend with his choices. He goes from “aren’t you the selfish one for leaving me” to “no I am selfish and therefore will martyr myself” within 15 pages. There’s also none of the beautiful atmosphere that makes the first novella worth reading. Very disappointing.
I deeply missed Tobias’ perspective; I don’t think this book did Silver justice. He fears the idea of an eternity alone in the Wood without Tobias or anyone else for that matter, but the flashbacks that flesh this fear out are maybe two paragraphs and the end wraps everything up in a bow so he doesn’t actually have to contend with his choices. He goes from “aren’t you the selfish one for leaving me” to “no I am selfish and therefore will martyr myself” within 15 pages. There’s also none of the beautiful atmosphere that makes the first novella worth reading. Very disappointing.