tantalize
tantalize by cynthia leitich smith - this is one of those books that i wanted and expected to like much more than i actually did. theoretically, i'm right there the whole way, all about it, big fan. vampires? werewolves? foodies? sign me up!
alas, the reality of the book left me wanting. i am perplexed. not so much by the story - although it does take a wee bit of work to get into the slightly-alternate-reality, where werepeople and vamps are taken for granted as existing - but by my own reaction. if i'm not a huge fan of the book, why is that? and i think it comes down to the portrayal of quincie, the novels protagonist. i am not convinced. thinking back to the books i posted about the other night, it's very similar to my reaction to the girl in the christopher killer. she doesn't strike me quite right. the characterization doesn't entirely jibe with girls i have known, girls i have been. which isn't to say that i need to find myself or the people i know in every single literary portrayal. but even if you don't relate to a character, you should at least be able to recognize her as real, no?
and then i thought that maybe it's the fact that i'm a post-modern, feminist, millenial sort of gal, and i have higher expectations of my action/horror/romance heroines. i like girls who can kick ass - stand up for themselves and be smart and not be a pauline in peril that needs someone to break in at the last minute and save them. i want buffy. i want veronica mars (although i admit that she occassionally had her moments of weakness. and when she did, boy did all the fan message boards burn up). and for all the many things that quincie is, she is not that. at one point - the supposedly big, revelatory moment - i actually sat up and said aloud to my completely empty apartment, "well, duh, you stupid bitch," which i assume is not quite what smith was going for there ... we know from the get go that this is a vampire story. why the clumsy cloak and dagger? and if you are going to do something along the vampire lines in this day and age, please, please, please bring something new to it. that's why buffy was so engaging. that's why i'll excitedly push peeps on anyone i think will read it. even the stephanie mayer - which i enjoyed and totally got sucked into, even though i think it has a lot of flaws - at least did it a little. and if it didn't do it completely, at least it was able to create the right lush atmosphere. i just didn't feel that here and it was really rather disappointing.
so, yeah. it's an okay book. i'm just a wee bit sad because it could've been a really great book. more werewolves please. less heavy-handedness and writer 101 action. more smarts, less rescuing. in the meantime, i'd rather read poppy z. brite.
alas, the reality of the book left me wanting. i am perplexed. not so much by the story - although it does take a wee bit of work to get into the slightly-alternate-reality, where werepeople and vamps are taken for granted as existing - but by my own reaction. if i'm not a huge fan of the book, why is that? and i think it comes down to the portrayal of quincie, the novels protagonist. i am not convinced. thinking back to the books i posted about the other night, it's very similar to my reaction to the girl in the christopher killer. she doesn't strike me quite right. the characterization doesn't entirely jibe with girls i have known, girls i have been. which isn't to say that i need to find myself or the people i know in every single literary portrayal. but even if you don't relate to a character, you should at least be able to recognize her as real, no?
and then i thought that maybe it's the fact that i'm a post-modern, feminist, millenial sort of gal, and i have higher expectations of my action/horror/romance heroines. i like girls who can kick ass - stand up for themselves and be smart and not be a pauline in peril that needs someone to break in at the last minute and save them. i want buffy. i want veronica mars (although i admit that she occassionally had her moments of weakness. and when she did, boy did all the fan message boards burn up). and for all the many things that quincie is, she is not that. at one point - the supposedly big, revelatory moment - i actually sat up and said aloud to my completely empty apartment, "well, duh, you stupid bitch," which i assume is not quite what smith was going for there ... we know from the get go that this is a vampire story. why the clumsy cloak and dagger? and if you are going to do something along the vampire lines in this day and age, please, please, please bring something new to it. that's why buffy was so engaging. that's why i'll excitedly push peeps on anyone i think will read it. even the stephanie mayer - which i enjoyed and totally got sucked into, even though i think it has a lot of flaws - at least did it a little. and if it didn't do it completely, at least it was able to create the right lush atmosphere. i just didn't feel that here and it was really rather disappointing.
so, yeah. it's an okay book. i'm just a wee bit sad because it could've been a really great book. more werewolves please. less heavy-handedness and writer 101 action. more smarts, less rescuing. in the meantime, i'd rather read poppy z. brite.