Cynthia Leitich Smith: Tantalize and Eternal

[sanguinity]

3. Cynthia Leitich Smith, Tantalize.
4. Cynthia Leitich Smith, Eternal.

Both novels are set in the same world, but Eternal is a prequel to Tantalize. Even though the two books don't share any cast members in common, the sequence would have been nice to know going in: what happens to the Eternal cast sets up the possibilities established for the Tantalize storyline, and there are aspects of the two stories that seem not to mesh properly unless you realize that Eternal happens first. It's hard to say anything more concrete about the interrelationship of the two without spoiling the conclusions of both books, so let's just leave it there: Eternal happened first. Okay?

(Book three, by the way, is supposed to integrate both casts: yay! I want book three!)

Tantalize was a nice enough -- light, fast, funny -- for about the first half. The premise seemed a bit ridiculous and lightweight to hang an entire book on -- an Italian-American high-schooler, with the help of her uncle, is trying to retool the family Italian restaurant around a vampire theme -- but around the halfway mark the plot became OMG OMG OMG I CAN'T TALK TO YOU I'M READING OMG OMG. I wish the ending wasn't so young-adult-page-limit-reached, because I wanted a lot more book. It's sequel-ready, of course, but who wants to wait for the sequel? My favorite part in most novels is the middle third, where everything is deliciously messed up (similarly, my favorite part of any trilogy is always the second book) and Tantalize left off precisely at the point where it was ready to start hitting all my personal narrative buttons. (insert growl of pain here) MUST HAVE SEQUEL.

Eternal, to my disappointment, was not the sequel that Tantalize was setting up. Also, it's about a guardian angel, which is totally the sort of narrative device that makes me roll my eyes hard. But then Eternal caught me, too -- not as hard as Tantalize, but still, it caught me good and solid. And it resolved all its black-and-white good-and-evil stuff to my satisfaction (that is, good-and-evil does not, and cannot, crisply divide into black hats and white hats). And its conclusion makes me want the sequel -- which will be a crossover sequel for both books, apparently -- even more.

Some random things:

• In Tantalize, Quincie's boyfriend Kiernan is both Latino and half-werewolf. (Ethnicity =/= species! Yay!) He needs to join a wolfpack, for both his safety and emotional wholeness, but he can't just trot off and join: he as much doesn't fit among the Wolves as he does among non-Wolves. Even though biology is a major part of what makes one a Wolf, there is no biological essentialism to being a Wolf: if he is to join a pack, he has to study and learn and catch up on the things that he did not learn when he was growing up outside of a pack. He has to earn his way in.
  
  
• In Eternal, the heir to Dracula's throne is half-Taiwanese (I think -- I can't find the reference) and half-white. Dracula is a hereditary title, based on the Latin word for dragon, and it is thus customary to refer to the bearer as the Dragon, or to his heir as the Dragon Princess. Even so, Dracula executed the henchman who referred to her as the Dragon Lady.
  
  
• Dorky whitebread vampires in polo shirts and khakis.
  
  
• Weredeer! Werebears! Wereopossoms! Werearmadillos!

Comments

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

My favorite part in most novels is the middle third, where everything is deliciously messed up

Hee!

[sanguinity]

:-)

I wish YA's page counts ran longer, so we could spend more time in the deliciously-messed-up zone.

[oyceter]

Oh, I completely hadn't realized Eternal took place after Tantalize! Huh...

[sanguinity]

Other way around: Eternal was written second, but takes place first.

I suppose that it mostly doesn't matter which order they come in, unless you've got the "good and evil is a false dichotomy" problem that I've got with most vampire novels. But I do, so all the way through Eternal I was trying to figure out if I'd misread the significance of the ending of Tantalize.

[oyceter]

Gah, sorry, that was what I meant.

I sadly can't remember enough of either book to figure out both the connections or the significance of the endings, but your comments make me curious and make me want to reread!

[sanguinity]

Spoilers for both endings:

Tantalize has lots of incidental debate about whether or not vampires are unredeemable beings of pure evil (Kiernan says yes, everyone else seems to know little more than rumor), and ends with our heroine as a vampire. From narrative cues, we're left with the strong impression that she's not a being of pure evil, if only because Smith doing anything else would be a huge bait-and-switch.

Eternal places the vampires front and center, and both vampires and angels are solidly agreed that vampires are unredeemable beings of pure evil. Which puts huge question marks all over the ending of Tantalize. But then Eternal ends with a resounding "vampires can be redeemed" -- Miranda is apparently the first vampire ever to be redeemed. Which means that Tantalize ended the way I thought it had: not necessarily in an easy place, but with strong possibility of Quincie continuing to be our heroine.

[oyceter]

Ahhh, gotcha. Thanks!

[rootedinsong.livejournal.com]

He needs to join a wolfpack, for both his safety and emotional wholeness, but he can't just trot off and join: he as much doesn't fit among the Wolves as he does among non-Wolves. Even though biology is a major part of what makes one a Wolf, there is no biological essentialism to being a Wolf: if he is to join a pack, he has to study and learn and catch up on the things that he did not learn when he was growing up outside of a pack. He has to earn his way in.

Wow...

I didn't think this book would appeal to me (vampires?), but...

[sanguinity]

Yes!

The thing with Kiernan trying to join the Pack is a small piece of the book, almost in the background, but I still thrilled to see it there. Other aspects of that rang true with me, too, like how it affects his relationship with his non-Wolf girlfriend.

I, too, had been avoiding this series because of the vampires -- vampires are Not My Subgenre -- but the series doesn't hit the emo angsty Ricey notes that makes me hate most vampire fiction. YMMV, of course.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of werewolves and vampires, not because I dislike them on principle, but because of the way the stories are usually written, but that actually sounds interesting.