"Living with the Dead" by Kelley Armstrong
This is going to be less of a review than a little bit of a rant on Armstrong's "Women of the Otherworld" series. Which, by the way, I've found is really good only every third book, much like the even numbered Trek movies being the good ones. (So Bitten, Industrial Magic and No Humans Involved? Worth reading.)
My biggest complaint about the most recent books in the series is that Armstrong is coming off like a white girl who's trying too hard to include diversity.
My main argument to support this is the character of "Hope Adams." Hope is supposed to be half-Indian (Asian) and half-demon, although the human man who thought she was his daughter is white and high society. However, I doubt Armstrong has ever even MET anyone who was Indian in her entire life.
Nothing about Hope's ethnicity is evident in her character. In fact, it seems the entire reason she's Indian is to refer to her dark and exotic looks. Plus, the author called Hope "Indo American" every opportunity she gets in this book. I should flip through and count it, but she's referred to that way about 4 or 5 times at least.
Now, look, I'm not saying Hope has to wear a Sari or mention Hindu gods, but something about her culture should be evident. I work with a lot of Indian teens during the summer, and yes, these kids are American, but they retain their culture. They play Indian card games, they use Hindi as a secret code, etc, all the while playing with their Ipods and PSPs. And not a single one of them has such a pedestrian name as "Hope." Now granted, even though Hope is technically half-white, you'd think her Indian mother would insist on an Indian middle name or something. Anything to make Hope less boring.
And yes, despite being a chaos demon and the daugther of Lucifer, I find this character excruciatingly dull.
Getting back to the race issue, on the "trying to hard" part, in the beginning of "Living with the Dead" you find that one of the (MANY) main characters, Robyn had lost her husband 6 months ago. Robyn is white, her husband is black (interracial marriage, queue trying too hard, why couldn't Robyn also be black? Because you see, the only black character in the entire novel is DEAD.) and his death was race related. He stopped to be a good Samaritan to help a woman change a tire and she shot him because he was black.
The point is, Armstrong CHOSE to make Damon's death racially motivated. Instead of making his grieving widow a strong, intelligent black woman, Armstrong chose to make her white. You know, if Robyn had also been black, I don't think I would be as upset as I am. The fact that he is the ONLY black character in the novel, and he's been killed off (ok, yes, you deal with his ghost) makes me grit my teeth.
Ok, the cop character John Finley, MIGHT also be black, but the author doesn't explicitly say, although you could interpret one of his thoughts to maybe imply this. Oh and it's also strongly implied that he and Robyn will get together later on. *throws up hands*
I may be oversensitive, as hubby pointed out when I ranted earlier to him, but despite Armstrong flinging around all this "diversity" there is not a single gay character in the series -- although they MAY be a Lesbian Vampire, I'll have to double check on that.
This brings me to another reason I'm really becoming disenchanted with this series. The first book, "Bitten", about the female werewolf Elene was absolutely fascinating. Then Armstrong introduced witches. And sorcerors. And Cabals - the sorceror mafias. Then Half-demons, and shapeshifters and necromancers...and angels. And it's starting to get a little bit too crowded. There are too many Supernaturals, and they are too beaurocratic for my tastes, too many councils and organizations. I'm starting to disbelieve her worldbuilding. Add in boring characters like Hope and I really am disinclined to read anymore.
I'd say bring back Elena, but the cock-up that was "Broken" makes me want to say protect her from bad plots! "Broken" is a perfect example of a novel that's all plot driven, with characters doing stupid shit to make the plot work. Plus, Elena pulls off some incredible acrobatics for being like 7 months pregnant throughout.
I'll probably continue to get this series from the library, but I'm not planning on purchasing any more of them. I did that with "Broken" and I really really regretted it. It got put on the free cart really quickly. Although the next book with be a "third" so if all goes according to pattern, it should actually be a good one. I just hope Hope isn't featured prominently.
My biggest complaint about the most recent books in the series is that Armstrong is coming off like a white girl who's trying too hard to include diversity.
My main argument to support this is the character of "Hope Adams." Hope is supposed to be half-Indian (Asian) and half-demon, although the human man who thought she was his daughter is white and high society. However, I doubt Armstrong has ever even MET anyone who was Indian in her entire life.
Nothing about Hope's ethnicity is evident in her character. In fact, it seems the entire reason she's Indian is to refer to her dark and exotic looks. Plus, the author called Hope "Indo American" every opportunity she gets in this book. I should flip through and count it, but she's referred to that way about 4 or 5 times at least.
Now, look, I'm not saying Hope has to wear a Sari or mention Hindu gods, but something about her culture should be evident. I work with a lot of Indian teens during the summer, and yes, these kids are American, but they retain their culture. They play Indian card games, they use Hindi as a secret code, etc, all the while playing with their Ipods and PSPs. And not a single one of them has such a pedestrian name as "Hope." Now granted, even though Hope is technically half-white, you'd think her Indian mother would insist on an Indian middle name or something. Anything to make Hope less boring.
And yes, despite being a chaos demon and the daugther of Lucifer, I find this character excruciatingly dull.
Getting back to the race issue, on the "trying to hard" part, in the beginning of "Living with the Dead" you find that one of the (MANY) main characters, Robyn had lost her husband 6 months ago. Robyn is white, her husband is black (interracial marriage, queue trying too hard, why couldn't Robyn also be black? Because you see, the only black character in the entire novel is DEAD.) and his death was race related. He stopped to be a good Samaritan to help a woman change a tire and she shot him because he was black.
The point is, Armstrong CHOSE to make Damon's death racially motivated. Instead of making his grieving widow a strong, intelligent black woman, Armstrong chose to make her white. You know, if Robyn had also been black, I don't think I would be as upset as I am. The fact that he is the ONLY black character in the novel, and he's been killed off (ok, yes, you deal with his ghost) makes me grit my teeth.
Ok, the cop character John Finley, MIGHT also be black, but the author doesn't explicitly say, although you could interpret one of his thoughts to maybe imply this. Oh and it's also strongly implied that he and Robyn will get together later on. *throws up hands*
I may be oversensitive, as hubby pointed out when I ranted earlier to him, but despite Armstrong flinging around all this "diversity" there is not a single gay character in the series -- although they MAY be a Lesbian Vampire, I'll have to double check on that.
This brings me to another reason I'm really becoming disenchanted with this series. The first book, "Bitten", about the female werewolf Elene was absolutely fascinating. Then Armstrong introduced witches. And sorcerors. And Cabals - the sorceror mafias. Then Half-demons, and shapeshifters and necromancers...and angels. And it's starting to get a little bit too crowded. There are too many Supernaturals, and they are too beaurocratic for my tastes, too many councils and organizations. I'm starting to disbelieve her worldbuilding. Add in boring characters like Hope and I really am disinclined to read anymore.
I'd say bring back Elena, but the cock-up that was "Broken" makes me want to say protect her from bad plots! "Broken" is a perfect example of a novel that's all plot driven, with characters doing stupid shit to make the plot work. Plus, Elena pulls off some incredible acrobatics for being like 7 months pregnant throughout.
I'll probably continue to get this series from the library, but I'm not planning on purchasing any more of them. I did that with "Broken" and I really really regretted it. It got put on the free cart really quickly. Although the next book with be a "third" so if all goes according to pattern, it should actually be a good one. I just hope Hope isn't featured prominently.