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beccaelizabethI read this book a couple days ago but I hadn't reviewed it yet, I think because I was trying to find a way to like it better. I'd like to like it more than I did. For quite a lot of the first half I liked it very much indeed. I got a feeling of this being a world I hadn't read about yet, and a story that I didn't already know, which is a good exciting feeling. Unfortunately past a certain point it turned into a story I knew very well indeed, and do not like. You know the one that has the violent uncontrollable man and the woman who loves him? The one that goes something like 'I know he hurts everyone but he'll never hurt me'. I dislike that story. It's one of the threads that underpins people putting up with domestic violence, the idea that if you just love the violent man enough you build yourself an exception. The other big thread is the idea that he's only responding to you anyway, like that line in Labyrinth, 'You cowered before me and I was frightening'. And lo, that one turned up here too. The Big Scary Man was becoming what people saw him as, you see, so if the woman just kept her mind neutral instead of being scared of him, hey, no problem!
Bugger that.
It felt a bit different, so I kept turning it over in my mind to find how it had twisted those tropes better, but I can't find it. When she first meets him she stabs him dead to protect a child, which is a pretty good start, but then she falls in love with him after seeing that violence, which is not a good continuation. And there's a third party who has hurt them both real bad, and they beat him together. And it's all more complicated than all that anyway. But still... he's ripped others to shreds for trying to have sex with him, but she's okay cause he falls in love with her, and he's this wild scary cannot be controlled force of nature, yet he does everything she wants, and he's all old and chaotic and primal, but he changes himself to fit, and... it just tangled, I felt.
Which is sad, because in a lot of ways it's about a woman getting to be really powerful, which is nifty.
And some of it involves her choices even. And a lot more is her mother's choice. There's women making choices that make a difference all over the place in this story. Is of the good.
Just... she falls for the violent guy. And I've read that story before.
I know there's a great need for love and forgiveness and stuff, but I'm not convinced that love and forgiveness has to be aimed at guys who've tried to kill you. Just in general.
I don't know.
I liked a lot of bits of this story, but the romance bit was not among them, which was unfortunate on account of it being key.
Bugger that.
It felt a bit different, so I kept turning it over in my mind to find how it had twisted those tropes better, but I can't find it. When she first meets him she stabs him dead to protect a child, which is a pretty good start, but then she falls in love with him after seeing that violence, which is not a good continuation. And there's a third party who has hurt them both real bad, and they beat him together. And it's all more complicated than all that anyway. But still... he's ripped others to shreds for trying to have sex with him, but she's okay cause he falls in love with her, and he's this wild scary cannot be controlled force of nature, yet he does everything she wants, and he's all old and chaotic and primal, but he changes himself to fit, and... it just tangled, I felt.
Which is sad, because in a lot of ways it's about a woman getting to be really powerful, which is nifty.
And some of it involves her choices even. And a lot more is her mother's choice. There's women making choices that make a difference all over the place in this story. Is of the good.
Just... she falls for the violent guy. And I've read that story before.
I know there's a great need for love and forgiveness and stuff, but I'm not convinced that love and forgiveness has to be aimed at guys who've tried to kill you. Just in general.
I don't know.
I liked a lot of bits of this story, but the romance bit was not among them, which was unfortunate on account of it being key.