Well. This one'll tread the line between review and rant. The Pale Assassin, by Patricia Elliott. I didn't like it.
A severely underaged girl's family is haunted by mysterious man out for revenge who wants to kill all her male relatives and marry her, set amidst the French Revolution.
Congratulations first: One character (one.) is subject to ingenious characterization and is granted a stunning plot-twist/revelation towards the end of the book. Congratulations. That character developed smoothly, sneakily, and I had my suspicions and was quite gratified for them to be sneakily founded over one hundred pages later.
Umm.... other congratulations: This book evoked emotions. I wanted to throw it against the wall and stomp on it and strangle (viciously) the main character. But I kept reading. I made it to the end.
Here be not congratulations:
1) The main character, Eugenie. I found no reason at all to sympathize with her until well over half way through the book. I found her clueless, vapid, utterly stupid, self-absorbed, and with no awareness of the world. Redeeming qualities? A couple of times (when they are escaping Paris and are on their way to Calais), Eugenie has the guts and the talk to get them through a sticky situation. But. That lasts for maybe 20 pages total, out of a 327 page story. She's not a bad person. Just... in any other book she would be the stupid aristocrat who dies in the first mob.But because she is our protagonist, she has to stick around. Also, she seems to be a disturbingly young but alluringly attractive young teenager for far too long... She never quite manages to turn sixteen, which is when our horrible mysterious person would be able to marry her.
2) Julien, a secondary character, who becomes much more significant as the novel progresses. Namely, I take issue with his characterization and his behavior. He's a law student and all his friends say he is the clever one. Well. Clever? Maybe up until Eugenie gets her chance to shine. Then all his brains go out the window and he nearly gets them killed more often than he helps.
Elliott names the chapters by dates, always important events in the Revolution. Our characters manage to make a great many significant events. This book ends without concluding the story, perhaps promising another book (I don't know, I haven't looked). If so, I will not be reading it. So go read Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace instead: same/similar subject matter, much better execution.
Blue
A severely underaged girl's family is haunted by mysterious man out for revenge who wants to kill all her male relatives and marry her, set amidst the French Revolution.
Congratulations first: One character (one.) is subject to ingenious characterization and is granted a stunning plot-twist/revelation towards the end of the book. Congratulations. That character developed smoothly, sneakily, and I had my suspicions and was quite gratified for them to be sneakily founded over one hundred pages later.
Umm.... other congratulations: This book evoked emotions. I wanted to throw it against the wall and stomp on it and strangle (viciously) the main character. But I kept reading. I made it to the end.
Here be not congratulations:
1) The main character, Eugenie. I found no reason at all to sympathize with her until well over half way through the book. I found her clueless, vapid, utterly stupid, self-absorbed, and with no awareness of the world. Redeeming qualities? A couple of times (when they are escaping Paris and are on their way to Calais), Eugenie has the guts and the talk to get them through a sticky situation. But. That lasts for maybe 20 pages total, out of a 327 page story. She's not a bad person. Just... in any other book she would be the stupid aristocrat who dies in the first mob.But because she is our protagonist, she has to stick around. Also, she seems to be a disturbingly young but alluringly attractive young teenager for far too long... She never quite manages to turn sixteen, which is when our horrible mysterious person would be able to marry her.
2) Julien, a secondary character, who becomes much more significant as the novel progresses. Namely, I take issue with his characterization and his behavior. He's a law student and all his friends say he is the clever one. Well. Clever? Maybe up until Eugenie gets her chance to shine. Then all his brains go out the window and he nearly gets them killed more often than he helps.
Elliott names the chapters by dates, always important events in the Revolution. Our characters manage to make a great many significant events. This book ends without concluding the story, perhaps promising another book (I don't know, I haven't looked). If so, I will not be reading it. So go read Sally Gardner's The Red Necklace instead: same/similar subject matter, much better execution.
Blue
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