I really agree with you here--I really wanted to like this book, but had a number of criticisms of it (most of which you cover), and the resolution especially bothered me.
The entire book presents Ash's relationship with Sidhean as warped by skeevy power dynamics, and the resolution is for her to go along with his plan but limit it? This was entirely emotionally unconvincing. As you say, Ash isn't an active enough character for it to work, and Sidhean's feelings for her aren't grounded enough in her personality. Besides which, I've yet to ever see a situation in which the most effective way to get a dominating personality is to give into them like this. I didn't believe for a second Sidhean would let her go, and I wondered why there had been so much preparation for the idea of a Huntress traveling to Faerieland to save her beloved.
I would also agree that there's something up with the prose--I think it starts very effectively with a transparent, fairy-tale quality, but soon becomes apparent Lo is filling the character out a bit too much for her deliberately flat style to work, but not enough for them to be rounded out.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-03-14 11:03 pm (UTC)The entire book presents Ash's relationship with Sidhean as warped by skeevy power dynamics, and the resolution is for her to go along with his plan but limit it? This was entirely emotionally unconvincing. As you say, Ash isn't an active enough character for it to work, and Sidhean's feelings for her aren't grounded enough in her personality. Besides which, I've yet to ever see a situation in which the most effective way to get a dominating personality is to give into them like this. I didn't believe for a second Sidhean would let her go, and I wondered why there had been so much preparation for the idea of a Huntress traveling to Faerieland to save her beloved.
I would also agree that there's something up with the prose--I think it starts very effectively with a transparent, fairy-tale quality, but soon becomes apparent Lo is filling the character out a bit too much for her deliberately flat style to work, but not enough for them to be rounded out.