So don't read if you don't want to know... You've been warned.
Rant on.
Overall I'd call the book a mixed bag, with more disappointments than not. I'm tired of characters in series not growing, or changing, or taking even the most basic of precautions especially after having their life put in danger over, and over, and over, and over again. Really. And the beginning "excuses" in the book...Yeah, I'm not buying them. She says she doesn't notice all the other shit going on because she's too worried about Quinn. Uh huh, suuuuure.
Speaking of the bullshit with Quinn, ya, so, could have been handled MUCH better and in a way that made her reason for breaking up with him actually believable. I mean, wanting to be the important person in your serious sweety's life is completely understandable and not even unreasonable, but the way Charlaine handled writing it made it feel completely unbelievable. I didn't feel like Sookie handled the situation the way she would have, this is a woman who won't, for fuck's sake, do anything justifiable to her hated enemies unless she has to, but she tells the guy she practically loves (seemed to me like they were in love) to fuck off over shit he had no choice about and she handled it extremely poorly to boot. I could understand her being mad at the guy, I could understand her needing some time to think about it and I could even, if she decided to do so, understand her eventually telling him she didn't think it could work because he's got to constantly play babysitter to his deranged mother. But I didn't buy for a moment the way it went down in the story. Just seemed like a convenient way to keep the protag 's love life unnecessarily complicated and open for business for the rest of her bevy. She's pissed because she slept, once, once, with a perfectly great guy who cared like heck (still does) for her but has no qualms about her repeated fucking of an amnesiac? Interesting dynamics there Ms. Harris.
Killing him off would have actually been easier to swallow than what felt like the plot convenient, needless twisting of him. The two are practically joined at the hip, and with all the shit that happens to her, she gets pissed that he doesn't call, but doesn't for even a second stop to ponder whether he's gotten into some trouble perhaps because of his relationship with her? Something that seems to happen to pretty much everyone she knows. How very interesting. Oh but I forget, he's the reason she didn't stop to think about all the shit happening in her own home, you know the assassinations and fucked up supernatural politicking going on. I mean, she couldn't take her mind of of him long enough to think about all these terribly, important things going on, people trying to kill her...
Have I mentioned I'm getting sick of reading about female protag's that seem to have every single male in a 10,000 mile radius completely besotted with her? Have I mentioned this? Because if I haven't I really should.
Though credit where credit's due, she did keep the completely unneeded sexapades out of this book at least. I'm not adverse to sex scenes, really I'm not. But they need to be there for a reason. They need to advance something about the characters or plot and most the time they don't, they're just thrown in for the sake of, I dunno, grabbing the romance reading section of the population? Most the time it just reads like, well I need to show these characters intimately so I'll just let them get it on and, whew, we're good to go again. I have read some books that, while flawed in other aspects, showed some truly touching moments between characters who never so much as kissed, yet you knew, you knew, they loved each other, you knew they would die for each other and it was all the more heart grabbing for how it was shown without once throwing them into bed together.
So, in light of that I promise I will not make female characters who have overly, unnecessarily complicated love lives with 5, 10 or even 15 people. One, maybe two is, I'm sure, more than enough to suffice. And god forbid that ANY of them should actually have decent relationships. I realize there resides, in all of us from what I can tell, a certain fascination with the dysfunctional love relationships of others. I understand this fascination exists, but I hate seeing it drag out over and over for books and books and books with no change, no transformation, no, resolution. Apparently I'm in the minority here.
I'm not even saying I won't have fucked up people doing fucked up things to each other in my own stories, but I assure you I don't intend for them to drag out for several books with no resolution one way or the other. So if this isn't the kind of read you're looking for, by all means I strongly advise you to stay away from any future stories of mine. I'd hate to disappoint. Do I sound bitter? I am. I can admit it. Watching and reading characters I've come to be fond of and invested in somewhat, repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot for what feels like no reason irritates me. I don't read series to read the same plot over and over again. I don't want characters to stay (except in exceptionally rare situations) in vacuums, forever incapable of growth or change or understanding. I read because for all my pessimism and disgust at the world, I have a deep seated need to see people in stories rise up and learn from their mistakes, become better, change, grow. I guess I'm just reading the wrong things.
Rant off.
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