Poison Fruit
I finished Poison Fruit by Jacqueline Carey, and I really, really loved it (except for one thing)!
Ok, so first, what I loved. STEFAN! OMFG! I've been Team Stefan (I love that Carey actually had one of her characters say "Team Stefan") from the first book, and these sexy times were worth waiting for. But (almost) everything with Stefan was perfect. So since Stefan's a ghoul and all and wants to suck Daisy's big ol' emotions, she has to leave after sex. So the next day, Stefan sends an underling to Daisy's apartment with a dozen roses. Only the florist is out of roses so he gets cheesy mylar balloons with Spongebob and happy birthday greetings. Hilarious.
Janek. Oh my god. Another intense scene (but not in a sexy way). Janek is a ghoul, a friend of Stefan's, suffer of ALS, and a Holocaust survivor. In a really amazing and upsetting scene, Janek asks Daisy to kill him. (Complete aside, I've heard a lot of people use the word "murder" when talking about victims of the Holocaust, and it's never been one I used. It never felt right to me. I realized just now why. Martin Luther King said "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." Murder is an unlawful killing. If we call it murder, then it seems like it was a bad actors working in an otherwise just system. I think it's important to remember that it wasn't. Maybe that's just me wearing my defense attorney hat.)
The ravening. Daisy sets Stefan off. It was...wow. I loved Carey's description, Daisy's emotions going from sad and angry about Cody to fear and then nothingness as her emotions are drained by Stefan. And Nietzsche quotes!
Now the bad. The trial. There was just so many things wrong with it. So a hell spawn lawyer with powers of persuasion rigged the lawsuit. I can suspend my disbelief for all of that, but not that the Constitution just doesn't exist. In the book, a class action sued the city. In federal court. The Eleventh Amendment basically says that you can't sue a state or local governmental entity in federal court. There are times when this is not true, but this was not one of them. She said something about how they are in federal jurisdiction because of the amount of money in controversy. That will not get you in federal court alone, but I could ignore that because she made an effort. I was upset that she didn't make an effort for the Constitution.
Stefan dumped Daisy! I was heartbroken, but she jumped into Cody's pants. I never liked Cody. I hate that sort of "you're this, I'm that, we can't be together" bullshit. Yes, I know, werewolf. But the concept is too close to home. Fuck that. Anyway, Daisy bargained with God (which reminded me a bit of Phedre) on behalf of the Outcast, and then all Outcast were made mortal and not all emotion sucky. So Stefan had no more use for her. Like a guy who dumps his date after she puts out. Except that's just me putting my spin on it. He was a bit more classy than that. But I was still heartbroken.
Ok, so first, what I loved. STEFAN! OMFG! I've been Team Stefan (I love that Carey actually had one of her characters say "Team Stefan") from the first book, and these sexy times were worth waiting for. But (almost) everything with Stefan was perfect. So since Stefan's a ghoul and all and wants to suck Daisy's big ol' emotions, she has to leave after sex. So the next day, Stefan sends an underling to Daisy's apartment with a dozen roses. Only the florist is out of roses so he gets cheesy mylar balloons with Spongebob and happy birthday greetings. Hilarious.
Janek. Oh my god. Another intense scene (but not in a sexy way). Janek is a ghoul, a friend of Stefan's, suffer of ALS, and a Holocaust survivor. In a really amazing and upsetting scene, Janek asks Daisy to kill him. (Complete aside, I've heard a lot of people use the word "murder" when talking about victims of the Holocaust, and it's never been one I used. It never felt right to me. I realized just now why. Martin Luther King said "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." Murder is an unlawful killing. If we call it murder, then it seems like it was a bad actors working in an otherwise just system. I think it's important to remember that it wasn't. Maybe that's just me wearing my defense attorney hat.)
The ravening. Daisy sets Stefan off. It was...wow. I loved Carey's description, Daisy's emotions going from sad and angry about Cody to fear and then nothingness as her emotions are drained by Stefan. And Nietzsche quotes!
Now the bad. The trial. There was just so many things wrong with it. So a hell spawn lawyer with powers of persuasion rigged the lawsuit. I can suspend my disbelief for all of that, but not that the Constitution just doesn't exist. In the book, a class action sued the city. In federal court. The Eleventh Amendment basically says that you can't sue a state or local governmental entity in federal court. There are times when this is not true, but this was not one of them. She said something about how they are in federal jurisdiction because of the amount of money in controversy. That will not get you in federal court alone, but I could ignore that because she made an effort. I was upset that she didn't make an effort for the Constitution.
Stefan dumped Daisy! I was heartbroken, but she jumped into Cody's pants. I never liked Cody. I hate that sort of "you're this, I'm that, we can't be together" bullshit. Yes, I know, werewolf. But the concept is too close to home. Fuck that. Anyway, Daisy bargained with God (which reminded me a bit of Phedre) on behalf of the Outcast, and then all Outcast were made mortal and not all emotion sucky. So Stefan had no more use for her. Like a guy who dumps his date after she puts out. Except that's just me putting my spin on it. He was a bit more classy than that. But I was still heartbroken.