So This Is Ever After

DNF - PG 31

Why?

I've been having a problem lately with this not actually being what they are advertised as. This book is a very good example of this happening to me.

The best way for me to describe what I didn't think it was going to be was ‘loaded up with contemporary humor'. Humor is, to start with, super subjective. The ‘funny' in this book was annoying to me.

“You know what they say about assuming things. It makes an ass out of you and me.”

Or, where I quit:

“What the fuck is happening?” I yelled as I careened out of sleep to the sound of someone pounding on the door. I scrambled out of bed, tripping as my feet tangled in the sheets. It would be comical if I were the only one flailing, but my friends were just as harried.“Oh shit, they're after us!”“Who?”“I don't know!”“Where's my harp?”“Where's my sword?”

If this is the kind of stuff that tickles your funny bone, yay! For me, it doesn't work at all in a written medium and could only perhaps work in a visual medium.

Add that to the fact that we were introduced to all the main characters in almost a line-up in the first half-dozen pages so I'm having a terrible time keeping them straight beyond ‘bard,' ‘paladin,' ‘thief,' and ‘...warrior?' (Oh, and ‘love interest' because our MC already wants to announce his undying love.)

And... look, I love fan fiction. I do. But I read a review on this book that likens it to fan fiction and... I agree and not in a complementary way. I like fan fiction because I find it comforting: you know the characters, the main plot points of the original work and, being honest, I love the tags letting me know what I'm in for and how certain things are shorthand for what you can expect. (Like ‘Kate is her own warning' and you know what that's going to deal with.).

This book feels like fan fiction of a story that we're already supposed to know and about people we're already supposed to know and care about. (With chatty, contemporary speak in a fantasy story - which is something I cannot abide anyway.)

I do still want to read more by the author because while In Deeper Waters didn't turn out great for me, it did show me that they can write (even minor, secondary) characters I care about and a book that isn't all ‘look at me, I'm being FUNNY'. Yeah.