muladhara: (reading)
well-informed doorstop ([personal profile] muladhara) wrote2015-07-20 06:18 pm

(no subject)

I am trying to read The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Yes, again. I never managed it last time. The thing is, she's perfectly capable of writing (there are even actual occasions where I laughed at something, and I don't remember doing that while reading Shiver). I just don't seem to find her writing engaging. And then I wonder if me and the rest of the world are reading the same book.

I want to like it. From what [personal profile] musesfool said about it (albeit in mostly nebulous terms), I should like it. But eh. I'm eighty pages in, and the poor little rich boys are doing my head in (I have little sympathy for people with scads of money because I've always been without it). Also every time someone (mostly Gansey*) starts talking about ley lines, I just find my suspension of disbelief broken, and I don't know why. (Psychics I can apparently deal with, ley lines not so much. Which is fairly ridiculous, given the magic system in the Rachel Morgan books works with them, and I mostly liked those books**). ANYWAY. I might give it a little bit more and then give up? (I should just stop reading books by authors I don't get on with).

~

*Apparently this is his last name, and not some weirdo super special forename. His first name is Richard, but he is called Dick, so I guess I can forgive him for not wanting to be called by it.

**Never mind Kim Harrison drawing out the series over too many books, she's now chickified*** Rachel, and it fucking stinks. I tried to read the third from last one, and the Rachel in that book was not the one I was familiar with, and it was awful and I couldn't carry on reading it. I'll likely never know how the series ends, and honestly I don't care any more.

***Is that even the right word? I mean she's made her into the worst stereotype of a woman.
musesfool: MWPP-era Sirius (we all shine on)

[personal profile] musesfool 2015-07-20 08:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Gansey is very definitely an improbable character, and if your disbelief won't suspend for him, then it's likely the books won't work for you. I do think things pick up once Blue and the boys all get together to explore (and make an interesting discovery), but if you've reached that point and you're not into, I'm not sure it's worth continuing. *hands*

I know a number of people who didn't care for the books, but I went with it because they reminded me of a slightly less tragic MWPP + Lily early on, and that carried me until I started caring about them in their own right.