Mantchev, Lisa: So Silver Bright
So SIlver Bright (2011)
Written by: Lisa Mantchev
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Pages: 357 (Hardcover)
Series: Book Three (Theatre Illuminata)
Why I Read It: I loved Mantchev's debut, Eyes Like Stars. The follow-up, Perchance to Dream was weirdly a let-down in that it was so surreal I never felt I had a good grasp of the story. But I'm a loyal reader, if nothing else, and ordered the concluding volume, So Silver Bright, last year. Rather than read it, I let it sit in my TBR while I fretted over whether or not the installment would be more like the debut or more like the follow up. Finally, thanks to the Mount TBR challenge, it was time to find out.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: All Beatrice Shakespeare Smith has ever wanted is a true family of her own. And she’s close to reuniting her parents when her father disappears. Now Bertie must deal with a vengeful sea goddess and a mysterious queen as she tries to keep her family -- and the Theatre Illuminata -- from crumbling. To complicate it all, Bertie is torn between her two loves, Ariel and Nate.
Spoilers, yay or nay?: Yay. For those of you who haven't read the book yet (or any of the rest of the trilogy), I'd highly recommend skipping to "My Rating." Everyone else, onward!
It was interesting to pick this book up right after reading Bitterblue, which confounded me in its sloppiness. So Silver Bright, in contrast, read delightfully. Descriptions alone were sharp and eye-catching and magical. Such as this on page 5:
Controlling the earth was simply a matter of filling up the back of her head and the hollow of her throat and the place just behind her eyes with green tendrils and dark soil and crumpled pieces of leaves, and then thinking please down to her toes.
I was also immediately taken by the humor of the book, most often found with the fairies. On page 11:
Mustardseed grinned at Bertie. "I was never any good at geometry, but you're stuck in a triangle, aren't you?"
"Shut up," she ordered even as Moth asked, "But what if there were four of them?"
"That's a love rectangle, and five people would be a love pentagon."
"And what about six people in love?" Cob demanded.
Mustardseed thought it over a moment. "Manslaughter, I suppose."
There was also a moment where I thought Mantchev was having a little fun at Twilight's expense on page 12:
Ariel contributed nothing to the speculation, instead crossing his arms one over the other. The action recalled his butterfly familiars from the skies, and they flocked to him with eager wing beats.
"Bats!" Moth flailed at the air. "Vampire bats!"
"Don't be ridiculous," Peaseblossom said with a sniff. "Vampire bats don't sparkle."
""They do! They're a great glittery menace!" Moth countered, still cowering behind Cobweb and Mustardseed.
Despite some entertaining and delightful writing at the start, I started getting a bit confused on the plot. That confusion springs for a few sources.
1) I read Eyes Like Stars in 2009.
2) I read Perchance to Dream in 2010.
3) I read So Silver Bright a good two years after book two.
Then there's the fact that book two was so surreal in its story and description that even after finishing I didn't have a good grasp on the plot. So there was a lot working against me. Many times, I'd be reading, and something would suddenly happen to change Bertie's course of action, leaving me to question what they were doing in said place anyway. Examples being I thought they were supposed to perform and were in a hurry to do so, but now they're not performing and are leaving for the Distant Castle? Even at the Distant Castle, I got the impression that the actual competition would be held much later, yet after Bertie's introduction (and the story she tells with it), she's awarded the wish-come-true, and there's never any tension as to whether or not she'll get it. She just gets it.
Yet one thing I decided while reading is that this trilogy is truly three acts of one play, and I really feel like much of my confusion is coming from reading each act far apart from the previous. Truly, I'd love to sit down one day with all three books and read them back-to-back-to-back, because I think the story would make far more sense (I wouldn't have time to forget the details of how her magic works, for starters), and I'd have a much better sense of this tale as a whole. There's also a point on page 256 that implicates that all of Bertie's adventures since she left the theatre at the end of book one has happened in a week, which I highly doubt. This book alone seems to be taking a week, but again, it'll be interesting to really track that by reading the books all at once.
It's funny, too, how this book features a heroine with more modern sensibilities. In Bertie's case, it's children. She says rather defiantly on page 65:
"I won't be like Ophelia, knowing motherhood before I even know myself."
Which is an awesome line. One could also apply marriage to the same concept, but I love that Mantchev has convincingly explained why one should wait before rushing into children. And it's not like Ariel and Nate are pressing her to start a family; instead, Serefina is giving Bertie a herbal remedy to keep her from getting pregnant, even though Bertie insists that's not why she's visiting. Birth control in fantasy? Nicely done.
Despite a little bit of plot confusion, surrealism, and rushing in places, So Silver Bright is rather a mix of the first two books: the grounded but magical story at the theatre, and the magical but utterly surreal story in the real world. The writing remains mostly fun and sharp and delightful in its way, and I loved this moment on page 295 when Bertie finally returns to the theatre:
All that had been Ophelia evaporated like dew on rose petals in July, leaving the green glimmer-glass reflection of the Sea Goddess free to speak in an eel's hiss, her words the slap of kelp against the skin.
"I told you this place would suffer for your insolence."
And the way the ending dovetails into the actual story of The Little Mermaid, one of my favorite fairy tales thanks to Disney (and yes, thanks to Disney I discovered the source material and love that too)? So freaking awesome.
I also loved the resolution of the love triangle, and what "the idea of a child" and "the child I will never have" really meant. It was creepy and wonderful and yet it made so much sense. Bertie was forced to make choices, and they were hard choices, and Mantchev pulls it off wonderfully.
And Mantchev also ends the book on just the right now: after setting Ariel free and deciding to leave the theatre, she invites Nate to come along, so as he agrees to three demands. The third is this (page 354):
"Promise me you'll stay with me as long as you want to, but not a moment longer."
The rest of that section is wonderfully sweet as well, but it's also the VERY end of the book, and I don't want to spoil it that much. :)
My Rating: Good Read
While I have one reservation, it's too tiny of one to knock this down a rating. Truly, this is an utterly fun and delightful read, but not on par with her debut. The tiny reservation comes from the realization that this trilogy is best consumed as a whole, rather than three installments that you read over the course of three years. In truth, it reads like a three-act play, which of course makes all the sense in the world, considering this trilogy is Theatre Illuminata and dominates the world-building of the story. If there's one thing I still admire and embrace with Mantchev's books, it's how utterly fun and imaginative they are. I love the magic system (even while forgetting how it works between books), and I love the maturity in which Mantchev handles her heroine and her heroine's decision-making process. The trilogy ended well, and I look forward to re-reading it one day, as well as seeing what else Mantchev has to offer in the future.
Cover Commentary: The first time I saw the cover, I could've sworn Bertie was getting married (though, readers knew that wasn't the case). Still, I loved the white hair and the fairies surrounding her. The covers for this trilogy have been absolutely lovely, though with a weird side-effect: I see Bertie as the girl from the covers, and because the girl from the covers is painted rather than photographed, my mental visual of her is this strange, cartoony person that matches the cover. Which is cool, but totally adds to the surreal quality that I battle with in my head while reading.
Next up: Lies & Omens by Lyn Benedict