Envy by Anna Godberson

The is the conclusion of Godberson’s The Luxe (aka “Gossip Girl does 1899) series. If this had an actual fandom, I suspect I’d be in the minority in that I liked how it ended. With one exception, Godberson avoids the expected conventional endings for all but one character, and that was the one character that really needed a conventional ending. I also thought that, with one exception, the four heroines all got good evenings that suited them.

The series starts off with fairly traditional “good girl, bad girl” divides, but that blurs as the series continues, and the more conventional romantic plotlines become less conventional as it continues.

( spoilers )

I’m very curious to see what Godberson will come out with next. Possibly the past Mrs. Holland hinted at in Envy, though I suspect she’ll take a break from this world now.

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor

When I read The Looking Glass Wars, I was warned that Seeing Redd wasn’t very good. This led me to expect the worst, and so SR probably came across better than it would have otherwise! Though, it is definitely much weaker than its predecessor.

It’s very much the middle of a fantasy series, with the normal components, but it rather highlights Beddor’s weaknesses as a writer. It’s rather blatant that the story is written with a movie in mind, and many scenes are described in a way that would no doubt look awesome onscreen, but is very awkward when read. Beddor is also really good at action and his bizarre reworking of Wonderland, but not particularly good at…uhm…touchy feely things. Like, when he goes “oh, and the super angsty and vengeful guard is in love with the queen who is his childhood friend and grew up on another world,” it works. When he stops blowing and cutting things up and writes about it and feeeeeeeelings? Not so much. He’s a roller derby writer, not a boyfriend writer. (Which is not to say that this is the only touchy feely-ish thing in the book, but it’s an easy example, and other examples are spoilery.)

Lots of fun ideas here, particularly with Redd and the Wonderland exiles, but they aren’t particularly well executed, and the best parts are the ones that set up the final book in the series.