Recent reading

[luzula]

Tiger's Daughter by Arsenault K. Rivera (2017)
For my fannish book club. I expected to enjoy this based on the elements of the story, but I did not. I didn't even finish it. /o\ The style just did not work for me--there was so much over the top melodrama that I kept rolling my eyes.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (2018)
This, on the other hand, I really enjoyed! It was a compelling read that was hard to put down. There's one thing about the ending I wanted to talk about, though. The book has two marriages that neither husband nor wife actually wanted to enter into. Despite that, both of them are presented as happily ever after at the end. I do buy Miryem/the Staryk king, it feels like the book earned that one. But Mirnatius suddenly being starry-eyed at Irina? I don't buy that. Seems like he'd be overjoyed to be free of the demon, sure, and be grateful to Irina for that, but it doesn't follow that he'd suddenly be in love with her given his earlier thoughts about her. Maybe the book is intended to be closer to the romance-novel genre than I was reading it as? But it annoyed me a bit - I don't see why the book should be invested in making forced marriages work, anyway.

Comments

Re: SPOILERS

[green_grrl]

I meant to add, one of the main themes of the book was that women were so incredibly trapped by social expectations of the time. It was a constant theme that most women could expect forced marriages. That these two ended up in marriages where they had control and respect, and not having to marry some random brute out of family necessity, was the happy ending. :-/

Re: SPOILERS

[luzula]

Yeah, I do get that a lot of it's about women forced into situations and then making the best of them - and both Miryem and Irina very much do that, and wrest away a lot of agency for themselves. But the book did to me seem invested in a happy ending to those marriages, as well. If you're right about Mirnatius suddenly falling for the glamour, though, that would be a lot more complicated. Didn't think about that.

And to be fair, Wanda does escape her forced marriage and get another sort of happy ending.

Re: SPOILERS

[green_grrl]

I think the marriages were “as happy an ending as you could get.” The Mirnatius situation is weird. It almost might have been better if her original plan for him had succeeded.

Wanda has the best life—a successful land holding, the “male protection” of her brothers, no politics or attention, and no need for marriage ever.