All right. Somewhat disorganized thoughts. Bear with me.
Once I was willing to put my "What the bloody *&^% am I supposed to believe about this reform school--which is full of fallen angels, who seem to be being punished for something but can leave at will huh?" behind me, it's a decent read. Its not to my general tastes, but you know, just because I usually won't eat a doughnut unless it's a fresh apple cider doughnut doesn't mean I don't I occasionally crave a fast food doughnut.
Here's what I liked. I liked The Suprise! Villain rolling its eyes at Luce and going, essentially, "You are a stupid, whining teenager. You think the universe revolves around you and your stupid shiny boyfriend. I think you're freaking boring. Die!"
Wait, that came out wrong. Or, mostly, it sounds like I was rooting for the Bad Guy (??) to win, which I actually wasn't quite. I came close. Luce's Daniel gush made me feel like I was drowning in fake maple syrup on occasion, and to be honest...I don't like blond romantic heroes. My head always immediately labels them "wimpy."
There. I said it. I like darker men. I expect my romantic hero to have brown or black hair. I was inclined to like Cam better because he had dark hair and green eyes. IS THAT A CRIME?!?!?!?!?!
Having been raised with relatively little religion and then having converted to Judaism as an adult, I have a rather different view of Lucifer than I expect I'm *supposed* to reading this book; there's no "devil" in Judaism, which is part of what I like about the faith. Lucifer is, effectively, God's prosecutor, not God's antagonist; since God is concerned with choices, he facilitates choice, because you can't choose to be good in a vacuum and have the decision be meaningful. This is relevant; I'll get to it in a minute.
What I liked about the Final Betrayal Scene, honestly, was that it was an interesting little slap to the reader. It was a "you think this all so simple, you think you can gush pink hearts and make all the bad stuff go away. You can't. You're important. I hate you for being important, because you're so naive it makes me sick, and you act as if everything's so neat and clean, but it's not anymore." moment and frankly that's not something I expected to see in a book like this.
That, combined with what I just said about Lucifer, makes me wonder if perhaps the author is pulling a choice situation. Luce falls for Daniel, she thinks, because its fate, and maybe some degree of predestination is in play. But Cam talked about her choice as if her choice means something...but she's not really choosing so far. She's just going where she's led, and that's not meaningful. I'll be interested to see if it becomes meaningful.
I might be reading my own thoughts about good, evil, and human choice in, but perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing?
I was also not as annoyed with Luce's gush as I expected to be...particularly after I read the Surprise! Villain's rant. She's not acting unrealistically. She's acting like a 17 year old who can't think through her hormones. That's a freaking annoying behavior when you're ten years older and your frontal lobes have kicked back in, but it's not unbelievable--it may even be very good characterization--and I can see middle teens thinking it's the most freaking romantic thing ever.
Thanks so much for your thoughts! Can't wait to hear what you think of the sequel!
My thoughts on good and evil aren't traditional by any means either, and not necessarily because of religion. More recently, the Mike Carey Lucifer comic book series had me thinking a lot about the nature of good and evil, so did Strazynski's Midnight Nation.
Seriously, there's so much GOOD stuff out there that questions the nature of good and evil, God and Lucifer, that it's hard to swallow the black & white labels, you know?
Once I was willing to put my "What the bloody *&^% am I supposed to believe about this reform school--which is full of fallen angels, who seem to be being punished for something but can leave at will huh?" behind me, it's a decent read. Its not to my general tastes, but you know, just because I usually won't eat a doughnut unless it's a fresh apple cider doughnut doesn't mean I don't I occasionally crave a fast food doughnut.
Here's what I liked. I liked The Suprise! Villain rolling its eyes at Luce and going, essentially, "You are a stupid, whining teenager. You think the universe revolves around you and your stupid shiny boyfriend. I think you're freaking boring. Die!"
Wait, that came out wrong. Or, mostly, it sounds like I was rooting for the Bad Guy (??) to win, which I actually wasn't quite. I came close. Luce's Daniel gush made me feel like I was drowning in fake maple syrup on occasion, and to be honest...I don't like blond romantic heroes. My head always immediately labels them "wimpy."
There. I said it. I like darker men. I expect my romantic hero to have brown or black hair. I was inclined to like Cam better because he had dark hair and green eyes. IS THAT A CRIME?!?!?!?!?!
Having been raised with relatively little religion and then having converted to Judaism as an adult, I have a rather different view of Lucifer than I expect I'm *supposed* to reading this book; there's no "devil" in Judaism, which is part of what I like about the faith. Lucifer is, effectively, God's prosecutor, not God's antagonist; since God is concerned with choices, he facilitates choice, because you can't choose to be good in a vacuum and have the decision be meaningful. This is relevant; I'll get to it in a minute.
What I liked about the Final Betrayal Scene, honestly, was that it was an interesting little slap to the reader. It was a "you think this all so simple, you think you can gush pink hearts and make all the bad stuff go away. You can't. You're important. I hate you for being important, because you're so naive it makes me sick, and you act as if everything's so neat and clean, but it's not anymore." moment and frankly that's not something I expected to see in a book like this.
That, combined with what I just said about Lucifer, makes me wonder if perhaps the author is pulling a choice situation. Luce falls for Daniel, she thinks, because its fate, and maybe some degree of predestination is in play. But Cam talked about her choice as if her choice means something...but she's not really choosing so far. She's just going where she's led, and that's not meaningful. I'll be interested to see if it becomes meaningful.
I might be reading my own thoughts about good, evil, and human choice in, but perhaps that's not entirely a bad thing?
I was also not as annoyed with Luce's gush as I expected to be...particularly after I read the Surprise! Villain's rant. She's not acting unrealistically. She's acting like a 17 year old who can't think through her hormones. That's a freaking annoying behavior when you're ten years older and your frontal lobes have kicked back in, but it's not unbelievable--it may even be very good characterization--and I can see middle teens thinking it's the most freaking romantic thing ever.
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My thoughts on good and evil aren't traditional by any means either, and not necessarily because of religion. More recently, the Mike Carey Lucifer comic book series had me thinking a lot about the nature of good and evil, so did Strazynski's Midnight Nation.
Seriously, there's so much GOOD stuff out there that questions the nature of good and evil, God and Lucifer, that it's hard to swallow the black & white labels, you know?
Reply
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