"Wicked Lovely" - brief review

[timepiececlock]

I started the audiobook for Wicked Lovely, an urban fantasy YA romance by Melissa Marr, but I gave up after a few hours of listening.

My reasons were varied, but the strongest reason was the reason anyone should give up a book: it just wasn't that interesting to me. I found the title character okay but not inspiring, and the supporting characters too simplistic or too unrealistically perfect. The concept would have been a lot more thrilling as a horror novel than as the only-slightly-dangerous romance it was leading up to be. Which is too bad, because the faeries as an idea are interesting and not a little creepy...if only the writing had committed more to the creepy factor and less to turning them into Baywatch meets Desperate Housewives, if all the characters in Baywatch and Desperate Housewives stopped living their fantastic dramas because one hottie reached through the television set, picked a female viewer, and declared her his queen for the sole purpose of getting away from his mother. Not because the girl was interesting, alluring, or had anything in her personality or even total personhood that he was attracted to.

Anyway, it had promise, but I got bored. That's not even touching on the sexual/gender politics of the book, which from what I read were not bad yet but had the potential to be VERY bad. Ashling, or whatever the main character's name is (it's a stupid name), seemed a young woman with a strong sense of self-preservation and willpower. She also spends much of her time terrified, but in an understandable way given the circumstances she faces everyday and how she's been raised to fear the faerie world. I'd be freaked out all the time too. But right from the first few chapters I could feel the book setting her up for a romance that I knew was going to exploit the worst of the set-up: connect the supposedly "strong willed"---but in reality just plain "terrified"---young woman to the supernaturally alluring, relentlessly aggressive male pursuer. Blegh. I don't need to read that.

Comments

[mildmay.livejournal.com]

But right from the first few chapters I could feel the book setting her up for a romance that I knew was going to exploit the worst of the set-up: connect the supposedly "strong willed"---but in reality just plain "terrified"---young woman to the supernaturally alluring, relentlessly aggressive male pursuer.

That's actually not what happens, though. I read the book last year, and I had my issues with it, but it does actually subvert that particular trope.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Well, that's good to know! Too bad I hadn't gotten that impression earlier. As it is, my interest was already drifting, and the thought of seeing that trope play out just killed any remaining interest I might have had. There's just so many other things I could be reading instead...

[mildmay.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm not saying you should read it. It's...I don't know. It was kind of a frustrating book because it had a lot of promise and I liked some of the concepts in it but the execution was often lacking. Um. The romance that DID happen ended up sort of meh just because the guy was so perfect he was boring (what you said about the supporting characters is very true). I sort of liked the way Aislinn and Keenan's relationship ended up because, from what I recall, by the end of it there was mutual respect between them and they realized the could work as partners without having to be lovers. Which was nice, but it all felt kind of rushed, so it still wasn't as good as it COULD have been. So it's definitely not a book I'd go out of my way to recommend.

I was just commenting that it DID do something slightly different than expected in regards to that one expectation. It doesn't necessarily make up for the book's other flaws, though.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I'll have to content myself with the thought that Keenan eventually has a Princess Diaries 2 moment and realizes he doesn't need to be married to rule. If that's not what happens, don't tell me! It's the best I can think of.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Actually, what happens is much better.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Keenan and Ash don't actually end up in a romance at all. ^^; And the story, while it does have two romances in the background, isn't a romance. Horror? Not quite. Urban Fantasy, really.

[clodia-risa.livejournal.com]

Actually, Ashling or Aisling or Aislinn (never read it, don't know how its spelled) is an older Irish name, so it's not mean to be one of those (stupid) new agey names, but an actual name that (I don't think) gets used as much nowadays.

[akavertigo.livejournal.com]

Forget likable, I couldn't find a single interesting character in the whole damn cast. Not. A. Single. One. Not even the f*cking wolf. And why is there a f*cking wolf? What does he do?