First off, I thought it was an unusual image of a little ten year old girl (who was actually a 53 year old woman), dictating to older adult humans what they were to do. Although this was part of their relationship with each other, I thought the image of a small child coming up with all these elaborate plans for all these adults to follow was hard to imagine. It's almost as if you had to imagine her as a older woman for it to really make sense. The book seemed to emphasize how Shori did not like to rule over humans too much, but still in the end she was bossing them around and they went along with exactly what she said. This just kind of made me feel bothered to read about, but perhaps this was how the author wanted me to feel. And of course, the fact that Shori had sexual relationships with these adults was also really hard to understand, but somehow when I read enough about it, it somehow fell into place and worked. But, as for the bossing around of humans, that part just didn't work for me.
Another part of the book I have to criticize would be the ending. The part where they explain The Council of Judgement seemed to go on for just too long. It was a case of good and evil and it was obvious that the good was going to win and the evil was going to lose. I understand that the author wanted to explain how justice was found in an Ina society, but this seemed to take up too much of the book and to me, was a dull ending. Also, to go with The Council of Judgement, there were so many characters involved that it got to be confusing and kind of annoying. There was so many people to keep track of, that after a while, I stopped fully paying attention to every single name and just simply moved on because otherwise, my head would of hurt in confusion. I don't believe it was truly necessary to explain every single character, it seemed to make the ending that much more dull in my opinion. Especially when each of the thirteen characters deciding the fate of the Silk family was supposed to speak their mind about their decision. That to me was just too much.
Another thing that I have to mention (which is, I admit, is kind of nit-picky) was her over explanation of food items. There were so many instances where the author took several sentences to describe the exact meal that each of her symbionts was eating, up to the detail of the flavor of muffins. It seemed to be unnecessary. Mostly I thought it to be unnecessary because the main character, Shori, was an Ina who did not even eat the food described, so why describe the food in such detail? That was just too much.
Besides those criticisms, Fledgling really wasn't that bad. It was an interesting twist on vampire mythology that really made for a great story.
The eating thing you pointed out is very interesting. I realize it, too. It is a little weird at first. However, I try to think in a different view, it becomes reasonable. Firstly, this is a way that shows how much Shori cares about symbionts. Shori likes to watch them eating which makes them health. It also a kind of unconscious memory about Shori's life before fire. Since she is used to live with symbionts, she is farimily with this eating action. However, there is a little too much detail descriptions.
ReplyDeleteI also found that the Council was entirely too long. I mean really to take up almost a third of the book is ridiculous. I think the food comments in the book were weird as well.
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