Scan barcode
A review by aotales
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
3.0
(2.5 Stars) Another reviewer put it perfectly: A Lesson In Vengeance is trying too hard. While the story itself is really interesting and the writing can be fluid and dynamic when the author gets out of her own way, the whole is so overworked with unnecessary “thesaurus writing” and awkward, overdone metaphoric statements. A personal literary pet peeve of mine is using ten dollar words when a two dollar works just fine … combined with over the top statements such as: “Younger siblings gaze through the looking glass of their potential futures” or “Godwin house is no longer the home of Dickinson and witches but a monstrous chimera designed to maximize residential density” … what are you even trying to convey here? It’s overdone melodrama.
But I think the main complaint I have is that the characters themselves were not believable as teens, or in some cases, even human beings. This story would have been much better situated in a University or Doctoral college setting, as the majority of the students (who are supposedly 15-17 years old) run around drinking old fashioned’s, chain smoking cigarettes, making truffle mushroom ravioli from scratch and discussing their thesis’ (!) “…Mysogyny and characterization of female emotionality in horror literature. It’ll be written through an intellectual history lens: How were these works in conversation with the social norms and mores of their time? How were they influenced by catalytic historical events in literature? And how did they influence literature in turn? As viewed through the gaze of contemporaneous horror writers” … yeah, that’s totally how 15/16/17 year olds talk. Am I saying no sixteen year old can talk like that, or make truffle mushroom ravioli from scratch? Of course not. But really, were you or those around you in grade ten?
However high my expectations, however much I wanted this to succeed, however much this story sits smack dab in one my favourite literary sub genres of Dark Academia and therefore gets an automatic 1 star lead, the okay plot never materialized into a satisfying read rather just screamed loudly like a toddler “notice me, notice me!”
Book Blog: https://aotales.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.o.tales/
But I think the main complaint I have is that the characters themselves were not believable as teens, or in some cases, even human beings. This story would have been much better situated in a University or Doctoral college setting, as the majority of the students (who are supposedly 15-17 years old) run around drinking old fashioned’s, chain smoking cigarettes, making truffle mushroom ravioli from scratch and discussing their thesis’ (!) “…Mysogyny and characterization of female emotionality in horror literature. It’ll be written through an intellectual history lens: How were these works in conversation with the social norms and mores of their time? How were they influenced by catalytic historical events in literature? And how did they influence literature in turn? As viewed through the gaze of contemporaneous horror writers” … yeah, that’s totally how 15/16/17 year olds talk. Am I saying no sixteen year old can talk like that, or make truffle mushroom ravioli from scratch? Of course not. But really, were you or those around you in grade ten?
However high my expectations, however much I wanted this to succeed, however much this story sits smack dab in one my favourite literary sub genres of Dark Academia and therefore gets an automatic 1 star lead, the okay plot never materialized into a satisfying read rather just screamed loudly like a toddler “notice me, notice me!”
Book Blog: https://aotales.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.o.tales/