A review by dalenora
The Puppeteer by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think these books are just delightful in how they’re structured. Each one has a clear and easy to follow plot arc that doesn’t drag on for too long with a clear climax that leads into the next one. They’re fun and easy to read! It’s not often I get to read a fantasy that’s 250ish pages, so it’s easy to fly through from the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing one, even if the story could have been told in 3 books or so. I love a good gimmick and having the book titles tie into the prophecy is super fun! 

That being said, the main conflict of this book didn’t really make any sense? Why would Cora be so upset about being stuck in the circus, when in the previous book she was nearly willing to become a wooden doll (at her own admission) just to get rid of the pain from her daily life? It seems to me like she should be on her knees thanking the circus, it really doesn’t sound like too bad of a deal, especially with what we know of her life before. A lot of her complaints felt half baked, and it kind of made this book drag at times, since it was mostly ONLY about her inability to accept the circus. I think a good portion of this book was redundant plot wise, and could have been taken care of in 50-100 pages pretty easily, but I did really enjoy the breathing room and character development time we got by having such an inconsequential main conflict. Sometimes, it pays to give a story some room to breathe, and I think I’m coming to love these characters more than I would have if things had been rushed and squished into less books, which seems more like the norm in fantasy romance now. 

There’s also some unexplained plot holes that really bug me, but those might be resolved in the next one.
once the faire became inverted, a lot of the major plot points we’d been introduced to stop making sense. If the faire is only topside for a few days to weeks at most, and when they’re inverted decades can pass in what feels like weeks, how could any of the events in the book have happened? How was Simon hung from the tower for 5 years? How did Hernandez live on for 32? And so much more. If 20 years feels like at most a year or two, none of that, or any of the other characters behavior up until this point really makes sense, So I’m not really understanding how this mechanic works. I get that it’s a Jeremy beremy type deal, but it feels more like a “hey and also wouldn’t this be crazy?” Rather than something that was really thought through in relation to the rest of the story. But who knows, maybe the next couple books will explain all that
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