Marr, Melissa: Fragile Eternity
Fragile Eternity (2009)
Written by: Melissa Marr
Genre: YA/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 390 (ARC)
A couple of weeks ago, I was talking about a surprise read, and this is it. irene2007 was kind enough to send me the ARC to borrow, and it's actually been sitting on my desk for a couple months. I wanted to read this relatively close to the release date so that those of you who are looking forward to this title wouldn't have that much longer to wait once you saw this review. So without further ado, let's get started.
The premise: in the third book of Marr's series, Aislinn and Seth are struggling to stay true to themselves while staying true to each other. That's a problem, because Aislinn is now faery and therefore immortal and Seth, well, isn't. What's worse is that there's too many faeries with their own plans for Ash's and Seth's relationship, and one particular faery will not at nothing to start a war, no matter what the cost.
Spoilers ahead.
I'll be honest, the anti-reading spell I've been under is continuing, and the only reason I picked this up to read and finish was because 1) I wanted to read it before the release date and 2) I wanted to get it sent back to irene2007 in a somewhat timely manner. I say all of this because my state of mind, which is anti-reading for whatever reason, is affecting how I'm viewing the text.
I had problems with this book, and I'm not sure the problems I had can be chalked up to the fact I'm reading the ARC instead of the hardcover. Typos, whatever. I expect that in an ARC (sadly, I expect it in some published material!), but for some reason, the POV really gave me fits this time. Marr always writes in the third person, which I've liked in the past, but I don't remember the POVs being so slippery before. I'd be reading a chapter involving Ash and Keenan, and I'd start in Ash's POV and sometimes slide into Keenan's. That's just an example, not necessary a specific one from the book, but just a way to illustrate that this happened often, with different pairings of characters. It kept me unsettled and distant from the text. Sometimes, it wasn't a POV slip at all so much as it was a character observing something but not reacting to something. A definite example from the book was when Seth was in the Crow's Next and Niall confronted Keenan. Seth watched it all, but had very little to do, and because of the third person POV, sometimes it READ like we were in Niall's POV even though I knew we weren't. Now, maybe this is an issue that got tightened between the ARC and the final printing, but for some reason, I'm doubting it, so I'm throwing it out there.
On a story level, this book really didn't work for me. I liked the premise a lot and was excited to get back to Seth and Ash as our primary characters, but as I kept reading, I found myself kind of wishing Marr had left their story standing at Wicked Lovely. Which I found odd, because in reading Wicked Lovely, I was interested to see what would become of this non-traditional romance in UF, but I found Marr's direction in this book to be too traditional. Though I will say, I think I'm getting personally frustrated with romantic storylines in general, which is surprising to me, but I need to throw out that possible bias.
Here's the thing: every character's action was motivated out of he/she wanting/lusting/loving another character. And the actions weren't necessarily exciting or definitive, though Seth's action was definitely the most tangible out of everyone else's. Ash did nothing but fret, wallow, and throw tantrums, and OMG I thought she was a stronger character than that! I couldn't STAND her in this book for so many reasons, even though the supporting cast points out on a regular basis that Ash's indecision is a problem, it doesn't make it any easier to read or put up with. I wanted to smack her. And then there's Keenan, who--while having moments of gentlemanly behavior--is a total ass. He finally accepts Aislinn's decision to be with Seth and to stop trying to tempt her (stupid triangle) and goes to Donia, but once Seth up and disappears, he drops Donia like a hot potato. Yes, the book points out that he's an ass who's going to get his, but reading all of this was really frustrating, because other characters really didn't DO anything based on Keenan's actions. Donia tries to be mad at first, but by the end, while she's going to stick to her guns and leave Keenan in the cold, she's still in love with him and won't willfully harm him. This book was all about the talk of War and what might happen and who would align with who and which courts were weak or strong, but NOTHING HAPPENED.
Essentially, it's set up, which makes me really glad there's going to be another book (or more books?) in this series, because we need a solid direction after this waffling. The only thing tangible we got was Seth's decision to become a faery, and I must say, once he leaves Sorcha's kingdom, I really like his character. I didn't mind it much before either, and I like how his relationship with Sorcha is that of a mother/son. That's a lovely touch.
And so this whole review isn't spent complaining, I'll also add that I like how, in this book, Marr strays from the impossibly beautiful but totally EVIL faery queen. Donia TRIES to be at one point, but it really doesn't sit well with her, even though she recognizes she could become so in the future. But Sorcha, the faery queen who's got every reason to be totally evil (as she is also impossibly beautiful), is not, and that's just awesome.
OH!! And we got answers! I really liked learning the truth about Ash's mom and how Ash's grandmother really viewed the whole situation with both her daughter and her granddaughter, and I loved the theorizing about how Ash ended up being the "one" who was destined to be Queen (and for that matter, how it might've been possible that ANY of the women in her family could've been the "one"). Marr answers some questions in this book that I'd had since Wicked Lovely, and that pleased me very much.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: if you're a fan of this series, but if you haven't started it, I'd recommend going with Wicked Lovely first (as well you should, since it's the first in the series!). The second book, Ink Exchange, stands well enough on its own, but Fragile Eternity relies of the events of Wicked Lovely as well as Ink Exchange that you're going to be a bit lost without those two books under your belt. To be honest, I was a bit lost even though I HAD those two books under my belt, and I'm willing to take the blame for that since I've not been in a good reading frame of mind lately. The book itself feels a lot like set-up for the next, and while one solid, game-changing thing happens in this book, it takes too long to get there IMHO and the rest of the pages are spent on characters over-examining their relationships and feelings for one another and bemoaning the strengths/weaknesses of their courts in case War (and yes, that's capitalized intentionally) gets her way. If you're a big fan of the relationship element of Marr's work, you're going to love this book. If you're more interested in the plot, well, you may find it lacking like I did. Still, there's some good stuff here regarding the 1) game-changing event as well as 2) getting answers to questions you may have had (I know I did!) after reading Wicked Lovely. I'll definitely continue reading the series (and yes, I must buy the hardcover so my collection stays complete), but I do hope the next book in the series has a little more meat on the plot-bones. :)
Cover Commentary: Marr is really lucky and gets BEAUTIFUL covers, and this one echoes that of Wicked Lovely rather nicely. The butterfly is quite the appropriate symbol, and when you see the book in person, look closely at the hands: maybe that's supposed to be glitter or faery dust, but I see it as a bit of frost, which again brings to mind the cover of Wicked Lovely.
Next up:
Still working on Blood Ties by Pamela Freeman and Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh, but who knows what I'm going to finish next. I sure don't. I just don't feel like reading. :-/