calico_reaction

Rosemary and Rue (2009)
Written by: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 346 (Mass Market Paperback)

I resisted this book for a while. After all, if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I'm tired of fairies, and this was an urban fantasy focused all on the fairy. So of course I resisted! But then the sequel came out, and I kept hearing this book praised over and over and over by fellow book-bloggers I trusted, so I caved and bought the book late last fall. And I've eyed it suspiciously ever since. Until now. Why now? I don't know. I think I got tired of wondering what the big deal was. :)

The premise: ganked from BN.com: October "Toby" Daye, a changeling who is half human and half fae, has been an outsider from birth. After getting burned by both sides of her heritage, Toby has denied the Faerie world, retreating to a "normal" life. Unfortunately for her, the Faerie world has other ideas . . .

The murder of Countess Evening Winterrose pulls Toby back into the fae world. Unable to resist Evening's dying curse, which binds her to investigate, Toby must resume her former position as knight errant and renew old alliances. As she steps back into fae society, dealing with a cast of characters not entirely good or evil, she realizes that more than her own life will be forfeited if she cannot find Evening's killer.

Review style: I'm going to implement a new review style in this blog, but it won't be one I use for every book, because frankly, it's not appropriate for every book. It's for books that I have a wide range of opinions on, and it's to keep me in line. You can thank The Force.net for this format too, because when I was reading Star Wars books back in the day, I loved their review style of "The Good. The Bad. The Ugly." They don't do it anymore, but it suits my purposes. Sometimes, the "bad" and "ugly" categories may refer to a specific creation and how grotesque it is, and sometimes it's going to refer to problems I had with the book. Clear as mud? Good. Expect spoilers here, as there's a lot I want to talk about, so if spoilers bother you, skip to the "My Rating" section of the review. :)



The Good

I want a rose goblin.

Seriously.

Why don't I have a rose goblin?

*clears throat*

I read this book at the right time in comparison to other urban fantasies. The one before this one was The Better Part of Darkness, and that book I had a very difficult time finishing because I couldn't stand the heroine and her voice was just too much for me, not natural. She made very bad decisions for no good reason, and I could go on and on about it, but I've already written that review.

This book was a breath of fresh air in comparison. Despite my dislike of fairies, I was pretty impressed with the world-building involved here. Everything felt solid and lived-in, that the author had everything figured out already and was showing the reader what was necessary rather than babbling about all the fairy stuff she knows. Don't get me wrong, we get a lot of telling in this book, but that doesn't change the fact that the world itself and the magic involved in it felt realistic and lived in. It was one thing that I didn't question, despite the fact I felt this book put non-fairy fans at a disadvantage. It takes for granted that the reader is already familiar with fairy lore, so if you're not, you're going to be a bit lost. I'm familiar, and I was a bit lost, but I know just enough that I could shut up and deal with it.

I also liked McGuire's take on the Changelings. Maybe it's been done before or maybe it's part of fairy lore and I'm just not aware, but I haven't seen Changelings treated quite this way in the fairy fiction I've read, so that was interesting. It made the Hope Box even more fascinating with its power to change someone fully one way or the other. No more half life for the user. I can understand why Devin would want such a tool, and I can understand why Toby turned it away. Some readers seem to think Toby's refusal of the box is a weakness that doesn't make sense, but Toby's never been fully comfortable in either world: not fairy nor human. Why would she want to commit herself to one life or the other? For better or worse, she's going to try and straddle the fence, and I kind of admire her for that.

Also, Tybalt, the King of Cats (I'm so naming a future cat Tybalt the King of Cats one day. Just you watch!)***. I loved him, but then again, I would, being a cat person. But here's a great line, emphasis mine: He was suddenly everywhere, made of nothing but fangs and claws and fury, snarling like a chainsaw trying to sing opera (213).

A chainsaw trying to sing opera, folks. That's just an awesomely great metaphor. :)

As for our heroine, she was sympathetic. I understood her need to stay the hell away from the fairy after her fourteen year stint in the pond, and I understood her stubborn insistence too in terms of how she brushed those bringing her back off. I'm not saying she was right all the time, because she wasn't, but I understood. That's one of the reasons the curse was so effective: the last thing Toby wanted was to be pulled back in, but she's in or she's dead, and the ticking time-bomb of that curse made for great tension in the book and kept me turning the pages.

I want a rose goblin.

The Bad

Let's start with the prologue, which was actually pretty darn good, though weird. I'd forgotten our heroine is turned into a fish, and now I remember it was another reason why I'd put off reading the book. Because let's face it: turning your heroine into a fish, and I'm not talking sexy mermaid either, is weird. But McGuire's got balls for doing so. She gives us a tense chapter, showing us everything Toby has to loose, and then bam! It's gone, and Toby's lost fourteen years. The prologue, by itself, is great.

But what bumps it down to this category is the fact that it doesn't relate to the story at all. Sure, it provides the emotional backup for Toby's motivations, but it's not more pertinent to the story than, say, Kitty Norville's origin is to Kitty and the Midnight Hour. It's something the reader needs to know, but not right away, because you don't want it coloring how the reader is interpreting the current story. And color the story the prologue did. I kept expecting Toby's case to somehow relate to her prison time as a fish, and it never, ever did. I kept looking for conspiracies, and sometimes the book made me think I was right, only to learn I wasn't right at all. This plot? Has NOTHING to do with the prologue. And there's no subplots focusing on the prologue either, and that's just a cheat. I'll grant that it's most likely that McGuire is going to resolve the events of the prologue in a later book, but the story we immediately get doesn't match the caliber of the prologue, which is pretty darn unique (engaged heroine, has a kid, and turns into a fish). The rest of the book, by comparison, feels a little urban fantasy standard.

And then there's Toby's family, which I had so many issues with it wasn't funny. For starters, I don't buy the family dynamic. Cliff and Toby had a daughter, Gilly. But Toby didn't marry him due to Devin insisting she wait until Gilly was of Changling Choice age, and you know Toby had to come up with some lame excuse not to get married right away. Yet, when we meet her, she's engaged. Tell me: what kind of man, unless they are just vehemently opposed to marriage on principle, is going to wait until his daughter is in her teens before he marries the mother? It makes no sense. What makes less sense is that Cliff and Gilly wanted NOTHING to do with Toby when she contacted them, and while I get the whole explanation that they always understood, deep down, that Toby's life was something of a lie, that still shouldn't have stopped Cliff from seeing her in person and getting as many answers as he could. Sure, he probably doesn't want to be hurt again, but the end result is pretty heartless.

It all makes Cliff out to be an instrument of the author's machinations, and I'm never fond of those when they're this transparent. What would've worked better is if Toby had birthed Gilly from another man, who didn't work out, and then Cliff would've been a step-father. Another good option that could've been used in conjunction was having Cliff married to another woman by time Toby returned, because fourteen years is a long time, and it wouldn't have surprised me in the slightest if Cliff had found a better motherly replacement for Gilly.

Other issues: Toby gets hurt WAY too often. Sure, it hinders her ability to break the curse, but the problem is that I got desensitized to her getting injured pretty quickly, so it lost its impact. Also, it never seemed to move the plot forward. I also got frustrated with how big of deal Toby's mother was, and how big of deal that was supposed to make Toby. People kept talking about it like I should know what they were talking about, but I didn't, so I felt a little lost and a little hurt. If I'm not reading too much into the importance factor, then maybe I'll learn more in later books, but I felt those sections could've been handled with a wee bit more subtlety.

Nitpicks: maybe I missed it, but we don't find out it's Christmas time until page 121, and I just don't believe we wouldn't have had ANY setting details prior to that point. No Santa hats that co-workers wear? No Christmas lights in the street? No skimpy tree that Toby's cats play with? Instead, it almost sounded like the author needed an excuse for the building to be empty, so we got an "Oh, it's CHRISTMAS!" moment and that was that.

The Ugly

Devin. God, I could kind of rant about this, but I'll try not to.

I don't mind him being the villain. As I said before, it make sense he'd want the box, because he's tired of straddling the two worlds and he wants, more than anything, power. Okay, cool. But I wish McGuire hadn't made him so creepily obvious. I wish the betrayal hurt the reader more.

Here's what I would've liked: Devin putting on the appearances of being a big bully, but those who REALLY knew him knew it was all a facade and he really cared for the kids. He doesn't sleep around, doesn't abuse, none of that. Home is truly a home, not another place where kids are taken advantage of. Then it would've made sense for Toby to come crawling back. It would've made sense for her to want her cake and eat it too in regards to carrying out both a business and personal relationship with Devin. And it would've made the eventual betrayal that much sweeter.

Instead, these are the scenes where Toby comes off looking like an idiot. Worse, she comes off as a victim. Okay, I get that after fourteen years in a pond and abandonment by your family, you're gonna feel pretty lonely and when you're in trouble, you're going to turn to a place you feel safe. HOWEVER: I still don't buy her reasoning for choosing Devin (a sexual abuser and physical bully who pretends he cares) over Sylvester, who is her liege lord and should've been the first person she went to PERIOD. Yeah, I get she's stubborn and believed Sylvester would be angry, but still: angry boss versus sexually abusive and repulsive ex? Oh yeah, I'd totally pick the boss.

What's scarier is that I think McGuire wants us to believe that Toby's still in the victim mentality, the one where when the abuse is over, the victim has the courage to leave, but when the abuser comes back, it's all roses and candy and the honeymoon phase and the victim believes that THIS time will be better so she goes back and it happens ALL OVER AGAIN.

I would've bought this mentality if not for the sheer amount of TIME that'd passed since Toby left Home. I would've bought this mentality if not for the fact that we KNOW Devin's still fucking teenage girls (poor Dare). Toby, the idiot she is, ignores this because I guess she just wants to believe that Devin's not that bad? That she's not that stupid? That maybe her impressions of him were wrong? I don't know, but there was a real ICK factor involving this whole storyline, and believe me, I know abuse survivors. You have to be SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP to be able to look into the eyes of a kid you're pretty sure is being abused the way you were and still turn around and fuck the abuser. Yeah, it happens all the time in real life, but honestly? This doesn't help Toby's character in the slightest. It makes her weak in a bad way, and I don't mean in a "blame the victim" way. I mean in a "The author REALLY should've thought this through" kind of way. Because it's insulting to both the character and the people who've actually been in similar situations (I should note I'm not one of them, though, so I could be off-base).

And no, you can't convince me that what Toby went through wasn't some form of sexual abuse. Because there's a line, somewhere that I didn't mark, that states she was both a willing and unwilling participant. That's abuse.

Luckily, Devin's dead. Toby won't be making this same mistake again. I really hope she learns from this situation, that she grows, because the more I think about it, the more it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. People complain about the character of Kitty Norville in Kitty and the Midnight Hour, but at least Kitty gets out of the situation and STAYS OUT in later books. She grows. I'd gotten the impression that Toby had already hit that growth and was using Devin for his resources, and maybe that's all she intended, but damn. Just damn.

Please tell me this character learns from her mistakes. Short of this, she's pretty likable, so I WANT her to learn from her mistakes. And I want her to heal. To REALLY heal.



My Rating

Worth the Cash: It's not a perfect book by any means, and I obviously had some issues (a particularly major one) that bugged me more after I put the book down. But those aside, it's an engaging read with a fully realized world that's not kind to those readers not familiar with fairy lore. In other words, don't make this your first urban fantasy about fairies. It's a good book, but you might be confused. I was confused, and I've read a handful of fairy-focused fantasies! At any rate, I bought the sequel, A Local Habitation the weekend after I finished reading Rosemary and Rue, so that should tell you something. There's a lot of potential here, and I really, really hope we see Toby grow into a stronger, more confident character, because while she's sympathetic here, she has some serious lapses in judgment that I'm not entirely sure the author intended (maybe she did, though, which actually scares me more). Still, it's a solid read, and I still want a rose goblin. :)

Cover Commentary: I love this artist, but I'm really not fond of the cover. Something about the angles (maybe it's the hair and the point of her ear?) bugs me, and the colors aren't all that eye-catching. That's another reason it was easy to put this book off! :)

Next up: Soulless by Gail Carriger


*** = Okay, now that I've gotten TWO comments from helpful people explaining the illusion to Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, I need to clarify: why in the WORLD would you think I didn't know the reference? Why in the world would I fall in love with "Tybalt, the King of Cats" and want to name a future cat this if I didn't know what it referred to?. I've read, and seen, Romeo & Juliet so many times I've probably got the whole thing memorized, but I know I have (or used to, back in 7th grade) have Mercutio's death speech memorized. He was my favorite character, and when we had group work that involved acting out a scene from that play, I was always latching on to Mercutio! So please, I know you mean well, but just because I read SF/F/H doesn't mean I'm not familiar with what's quite possibly the most famous love story of all time!. Seriously. Maybe schools aren't teaching this play anymore, but I'm nearly 30 years old, and for all that my TN education lacked growing up, they definitely knew to teach most famous love story of all time!

Now telling me where SHAKESPEARE got the term "Tybalt, the King of Cats" is far less insulting and far more interesting, and that I'll forgive you for. :) /rant