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Katie 's Reviews > Elder
Elder (The Elvish Trilogy, #2)
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Katie's Book Report - Contains Spoilers - For my own failing memory...
I read the first book of The Elvish Trilogy last year and something about it didn't resonate with me. At the time, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but I knew there was just something about it that was not my preference. But I'm also a sucker for elves, and so despite my feelings about Elvish, I intended to revisit the trilogy and read Elder.
Given the fact that I also gave Elder two stars, it's pretty obvious I had the same reaction to the second book as I did to the first, and with the help of a few friends that read excerpts of the book, I think I'm now able to better articulate what it is that is throwing me off in this books. First and foremost? It's the prose. The writing is extremely fragmented. I understand that everyone's style of prose is different, but this particular style is not my preference. There are commas everywhere, sentence fragments galore, and a lot of paragraph breaks, all of which created fragmented and difficult-to-read prose that disconnects the reader from the story. I think this prose style was used in an effort to create a sense of tension and urgency, and to pull the reader into the mind of the two POV characters. Unfortunately, for this reader, it had the opposite effect; it pulled me out of the story as I focused on parsing the language, distracted by how I was meant to read the content given all the punctuation and paragraphs. And this is not isolated to certain scenes or parts of the book. The prose is like this throughout the entirety of the first two books. So, if this style of writing doesn't work for you, I think you will struggle with these books as I did.
Second? The romance. There are three things that bother me and put me off in romance, and unfortunately this series to date has all of them: (1) insta-love, (2) a lack of chemistry, and (3) pining and whining. In book one, there is no build up before the two MC's fall in love; it happens almost instantly and with no substantive reason. They get to know each other and have interactions after they have decided they have feelings for one another. And then on top of that those interactions lacked chemistry. I didn't feel it. At all. Probably in part because of the insta-love. I want to know why there is an attraction, what is pulling these two characters together, and this series doesn't really have that beyond: they fell for each other. And finally the pining and whining. The characters kissed once in book 1 and their internal monologues have been dominated by pining for the other and whining about the circumstances that are keeping them apart. It is repetitive and no action is taken toward resolution. In other words, the plot portion of this romance is incredibly weak, and since this series is touted as a romance, I would have expected there to be more substantive romantic plot.
Even though I am now able to articulate what has been throwing me off about these books, I have to admit that I do in fact plan on reading the third and final installment of this series - Ember - which comes out next month. Like I said, I'm a sucker for elves, and now that I've invested this much time in this series, I'd like to see how it closes out.
I read the first book of The Elvish Trilogy last year and something about it didn't resonate with me. At the time, I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but I knew there was just something about it that was not my preference. But I'm also a sucker for elves, and so despite my feelings about Elvish, I intended to revisit the trilogy and read Elder.
Given the fact that I also gave Elder two stars, it's pretty obvious I had the same reaction to the second book as I did to the first, and with the help of a few friends that read excerpts of the book, I think I'm now able to better articulate what it is that is throwing me off in this books. First and foremost? It's the prose. The writing is extremely fragmented. I understand that everyone's style of prose is different, but this particular style is not my preference. There are commas everywhere, sentence fragments galore, and a lot of paragraph breaks, all of which created fragmented and difficult-to-read prose that disconnects the reader from the story. I think this prose style was used in an effort to create a sense of tension and urgency, and to pull the reader into the mind of the two POV characters. Unfortunately, for this reader, it had the opposite effect; it pulled me out of the story as I focused on parsing the language, distracted by how I was meant to read the content given all the punctuation and paragraphs. And this is not isolated to certain scenes or parts of the book. The prose is like this throughout the entirety of the first two books. So, if this style of writing doesn't work for you, I think you will struggle with these books as I did.
Second? The romance. There are three things that bother me and put me off in romance, and unfortunately this series to date has all of them: (1) insta-love, (2) a lack of chemistry, and (3) pining and whining. In book one, there is no build up before the two MC's fall in love; it happens almost instantly and with no substantive reason. They get to know each other and have interactions after they have decided they have feelings for one another. And then on top of that those interactions lacked chemistry. I didn't feel it. At all. Probably in part because of the insta-love. I want to know why there is an attraction, what is pulling these two characters together, and this series doesn't really have that beyond: they fell for each other. And finally the pining and whining. The characters kissed once in book 1 and their internal monologues have been dominated by pining for the other and whining about the circumstances that are keeping them apart. It is repetitive and no action is taken toward resolution. In other words, the plot portion of this romance is incredibly weak, and since this series is touted as a romance, I would have expected there to be more substantive romantic plot.
Even though I am now able to articulate what has been throwing me off about these books, I have to admit that I do in fact plan on reading the third and final installment of this series - Ember - which comes out next month. Like I said, I'm a sucker for elves, and now that I've invested this much time in this series, I'd like to see how it closes out.
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