An open letter to Juliet Marillier:
WARNING SPOILERS for Wildwood Dancing and the sequel, Cybele's Secret
Thank you for writing male leads in your novels that are actually AWESOME. And not just the pretty boy with otherworldly beauty, or the strong and silent bodyguard who will go to great lengths to protect our fair heroine, or the prince who happens to marry her. I mean, yeah, you have all of those males in your novels. But they actually do something! They have feelings! They make judgements! and mistakes! And our fair heroine and hero mistrust each other and have realistic catastrophes befall them.
I re-read the second half of Wildwood Dancing four times just to re-read the bits about Gogu. I loved Gogu so much I might be tempted to cuddle a frog the next time I see one. Every time Jena would make a thoughtless comment or left him behind I was like BUT GOGU YOU CAN'T LEAVE GOGU. So yes, you made me fall in love with a frog. The fact that he was actually a pretty studly-looking prince comes secondary.
And Sorrow. Man, Sorrow was set up to be this broody pathetic whiny thing, and embarrassedly I also thought Tati was being loopy for disregarding her family and everything she had to be with him. I mean, this is the kind of story you see in modern urban fantasy novels aimed towards readers who like Twilight. To each one's own, but it's not something I read, since Edward and Jacob are not real to me. But Sorrow, you were real. You've been through a tough time and you don't whine, you fight, even when those crazy vamps have made life miserable for you.
I am now reading the sequel, Cybele's Secret. Paula and Pops are now looking for a bodyguard, and I knew there might be some opportunity for romantic tension there. But were you cliche? NO! You sneakily let slip at the very end of the interviews that Stoyan was the "best looking of the lot," but I wasn't even thinking about that possibility since he'd um, showed up declaring himself to be the former bodyguard of a recently murdered merchant. And seriously repented it. And has a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
More like this please!
Yours in admiration,
Faye
Thank you for writing male leads in your novels that are actually AWESOME. And not just the pretty boy with otherworldly beauty, or the strong and silent bodyguard who will go to great lengths to protect our fair heroine, or the prince who happens to marry her. I mean, yeah, you have all of those males in your novels. But they actually do something! They have feelings! They make judgements! and mistakes! And our fair heroine and hero mistrust each other and have realistic catastrophes befall them.
I re-read the second half of Wildwood Dancing four times just to re-read the bits about Gogu. I loved Gogu so much I might be tempted to cuddle a frog the next time I see one. Every time Jena would make a thoughtless comment or left him behind I was like BUT GOGU YOU CAN'T LEAVE GOGU. So yes, you made me fall in love with a frog. The fact that he was actually a pretty studly-looking prince comes secondary.
And Sorrow. Man, Sorrow was set up to be this broody pathetic whiny thing, and embarrassedly I also thought Tati was being loopy for disregarding her family and everything she had to be with him. I mean, this is the kind of story you see in modern urban fantasy novels aimed towards readers who like Twilight. To each one's own, but it's not something I read, since Edward and Jacob are not real to me. But Sorrow, you were real. You've been through a tough time and you don't whine, you fight, even when those crazy vamps have made life miserable for you.
I am now reading the sequel, Cybele's Secret. Paula and Pops are now looking for a bodyguard, and I knew there might be some opportunity for romantic tension there. But were you cliche? NO! You sneakily let slip at the very end of the interviews that Stoyan was the "best looking of the lot," but I wasn't even thinking about that possibility since he'd um, showed up declaring himself to be the former bodyguard of a recently murdered merchant. And seriously repented it. And has a bit of a chip on his shoulder.
More like this please!
Yours in admiration,
Faye