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Beastly, but No Dragons

My spate of Twilight nostalgia led me to read the first book in another series favored by my kid: Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses. Kat actually left behind the books when she started traveling the world, so I didn't have to buy them. This series is also making the leap to television in the near future, so it stands to become even more famous than it already is.

Let's see, a few disclaimers are in order before I get to the write up: it's fairy fantasy, which is really not my thing (blame Laurell K. Hamilton and Tolkkien for ruining fairy fantasy for me.) It's YA, I think (or what passes as YA these days) which is likewise not something I enjoy reading. It did remind me a lot of Twilight, and I really did not like that series. Finally it's a spin on Beauty and the Beast, which frankly has been done to death in all ways shapes and forms, so nothing new here. Okay, I think that covers all my prejudices and biases upfront.

The story tells the saga of a poor human girl who inadvertantly kills a fairy while hunting food for her starving family. Fairies and humans are not in any way friends, so not a big deal for her. A fairy beast then comes to demand restitution, which requires the girl to go with him into fairy land and live out her days there. It's all pretty much more of the same beauty and the beastish stuff from there.

The writing is not bad. The author echoes herself a bit, and seems to want to describe everything as the utmost beautiful or terrible whatever ever but can't quite nail it. Otherwise she does a competent job. The dialogue is probably the best element. I liked the easiness with which the characters spoke with each other. Also, there are no dragons. You know how I feel about dragons.

Unfortunately the story plods. It reads like a pantser writing without a clue and trying to work it out on the page. Some readers like that kind of near-plotless rambler that crawls along like a snail under a mountain of fantastic characters that were no doubt fun to describe but really serve no purpose except for window dressing or crisis-spawner of the moment. Me, not so much. There's really no progression in the storyline for most of the novel. Also, if this is supposed a romance -- and I still have my doubts about that -- it is slower and duller than squeaky clean Christian romance fiction with discussions of bible verses in church on every page. Passion = nada. I might read the next book in the series, just to give it a fair go, but I'm not optimistic.

If you have nothing else to read, then A Court of Thorns and Roses might fill the void. Otherwise you might just wait for the Hulu series.

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