Storm the Earth
Nov. 19th, 2020 01:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraStorm the Earth, Rebecca Kim Wells, 2020. Conclusion of the duology that started with Shatter the Sky. This was interesting to read after having just read Unravel the Dusk, another YA fantasy duology conclusion. I thought Storm did a much better job of remembering what the reader came for (dragons) and continuing to serve it up - every time I started to get a little restless, there was another dragon encounter or event of some sort. All I want is to be constantly pandered to, is that really so much to ask. :) Nothing here was hugely memorable, but it was solid and a decent read.
Spoilery thoughts about the *other* thing the reader came for behind the cut: I talked before about being disappointed that what was being sold as "girl has to save her girlfriend" had turned out to be "girl meets boy while trying to save her girlfriend". In this one, we get a lot more page time between the girlfriends, but it's page time that shows the breakdown and eventual end of their relationship, and she does, more or less, end up with the boy. (She isn't sure yet, but he already has a ring.) In a way, I actually love when YA tells stories about how first loves sometimes end or get outgrown or don't work long-term - one of the reasons I love the Alanna books so much is that she gets to have that romance with Jon and then they work through a painful breakup and stay friends and get to marry other people who they can have the kind of marriage with that they want, which was *vanishingly* rare in anything else I was reading back then. So, yay for the baby bis who get to see something like that here with queer characters! But I do also still feel like thinking you're picking up something with an f/f endgame ship and then getting an f/m endgame ship is not an entirely satisfying reading experience. Accurate up-front tagging is the key to managing reader expectations! Bah!
Spoilery thoughts about the *other* thing the reader came for behind the cut: I talked before about being disappointed that what was being sold as "girl has to save her girlfriend" had turned out to be "girl meets boy while trying to save her girlfriend". In this one, we get a lot more page time between the girlfriends, but it's page time that shows the breakdown and eventual end of their relationship, and she does, more or less, end up with the boy. (She isn't sure yet, but he already has a ring.) In a way, I actually love when YA tells stories about how first loves sometimes end or get outgrown or don't work long-term - one of the reasons I love the Alanna books so much is that she gets to have that romance with Jon and then they work through a painful breakup and stay friends and get to marry other people who they can have the kind of marriage with that they want, which was *vanishingly* rare in anything else I was reading back then. So, yay for the baby bis who get to see something like that here with queer characters! But I do also still feel like thinking you're picking up something with an f/f endgame ship and then getting an f/m endgame ship is not an entirely satisfying reading experience. Accurate up-front tagging is the key to managing reader expectations! Bah!
