Pretty cover! |
Expected Publication Date: September 12th, 2023
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
My experience reading this book was a lot like trying to hold onto a handful of sand. No matter what, the sand always trickles away. In much the same way, the things this book promised never quite seemed to materialize, no matter how much I tried to hold onto them. A lot of elements in this book feel half-formed, like I can tell that in the author's head everything's there, but what's on the page just doesn't click for me. Which is a bummer, because I really wanted to like this book.
A Hundred Vicious Turns is a duology-opener as well as the story of Rat, who is gifted with a rare ability to wayfind passages that aren't supposed to (currently) exist. Prior to the beginning of the book, Rat made contact with an otherworldly being in a space between dimensions (or in a separate dimension, maybe - it doesn't matter much, I think) who wanted to spirit them away. Rat turned to classmate Harker for help, but then Rat's mother found out, things went wrong, and Harker now hates Rat, hence the synopsis talking about Rat having to face off against their rival.
That's all backstory. The book actually opens with Rat beginning to attend Bellamy Arts, a magical college with powerful wards. They are hoping that the wards will keep them safe from the otherworldly being who they think is still after them. It turns out that Harker is also going to Bellamy Arts, and has befriended two girls, Jinx and Agatha. Rat immediately decides that Harker is Up To Something and begins blowing off other friend Will (yes, poor Will) to try to figure out what Harker is up to. This involves ingratiating themself with Jinx. Jinx is also the Mysterious New Girl in a school of trust fund babies, even though she actually is just as well-connected as everyone else. (Harker is the only character who actually lacks magical familial connections).
This book starts off pretty slowly, but I was okay with that at first. We were building atmosphere, hinting at backstory, introducing characters. I'm very amenable to a slower-paced story. But then things started to feel circular and kind of boring. It seems like a lot of this book is Rat being anxious in their room, going out to meet someone (often Jinx or the rest of the group), there's a little bit of spooky other dimension stuff, the characters might discuss the thing they're trying to find, and then everyone goes back to their rooms and the cycle starts anew. There's a significant chunk of this book where it feels like the plot is just treading water.
(Also, this is a magic school story where the characters literally never go to class, which is a pet peeve of mine. If it's a school story, I want to SEE the school parts! It's not enough for them to just be on a campus.)
And again, I could have been okay with the plot taking a backseat if the writing had been beautiful or the character interactions had been standout. I don't remember there being a ton of plot in the Raven Cycle, but Maggie Stiefvater's character writing is so good that it carried even when nothing is happening. That wasn't the case here, at least not for me. All of the characters had the potential to be interesting, but it felt like we didn't spend enough time on developing any of them. Even Rat felt kind of flat after the millionth anxiety-ridden "Rat [did x} and hated themself for it" we got in the narration - not to mention the numerous times Rat starts typing out texts to people and then deletes them. I really wanted more of Agatha, or more interactions with Harker that didn't just boil down to him and Rat glaring at each other.
On a writing note, I think this book also had the somewhat rare problem of over-relying on pronouns? Since the four main characters mostly use different pronouns (except Agatha and Jinx, who are both she/her), a lot of the time the narration refrained from restating character names more often than I personally prefer. At one point, there was a half page of conversation between Rat and Harker at the end of a chapter where Rat's name is used twice and Harker is only referred to via pronouns. It may not sound like a big deal, but it did affect my comprehension, and it would easily be fixed by just using the characters' names a bit more often.
By the time I was halfway through the book, I was starting to lose steam and I began to get increasingly frustrated with the pacing. Sometimes it felt like the characters would just stand around and take forever to make a decision; other times the action and resolution of things felt weirdly fast. Someone who was still enjoying reading the latter half of the book probably wouldn't have been as bothered as I was by these things, I fully admit.
I do think this book has an interesting premise and is tackling some kind of interesting ideas. The whole premise of Rat and Harker's dynamic is that they currently "hate" each other because they used to be so close, and Rat is constantly dealing with the fact that part of them still defaults to Harker when they need someone to talk to, etc etc. There were some genuinely interesting moments between them that made me wish I liked the way their backstory had been set up more, because I was pretty meh on the execution of it all. Additionally, the dynamic of Harker not having the same connections everyone else does and having to deal with assumptions that he MUST be using people because his family isn't rich was intriguing, although there could have been more exploration of it in my opinion (Give me the full Adam from the Raven Cycle experience, c'mon!).
Plus I like otherworldly/interdimensional stuff in general, combining it with a magic school setting seems sick, and Agatha and Jinx both seem like very interesting characters in their own right.
While this book fell flat for me, I think there's probably an audience out there for it. I can see some people loving this book and being able to look past the flaws that prevented me, personally, from loving it. I did enjoy the concepts in this book and it was cool to read a book with a nonbinary main character and a trans love interest (even if I ultimately wished that Agatha or Harker had been the main character).
Oh well. I hope someone likes this book. I didn't.
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