(There was also something going on with the daughter and the woman and the end of the world gateway I always feel like I don't quite get.)
Same! It's tantalizing because you can almost unpack a ton of mythic significance to all of their scenes and symbolism ... almost. But not quite. I would be really interested to know what he was thinking there. (But will wait 'til I'm done reading before even trying to find out; I am making a lot of guesses about where it's all going and really enjoying knowing as little as I do.)
The second book is a very mythic-feeling book - actually more so than the third (which I'm now about halfway through). I think the mythological aspect of these books is what makes them feel so, for lack of a better word, resonant - he digs under Narnia, under Tolkien, to the myths and folktales that inspired them in the first place. Very Angela Carter, in a way. He's one of those writers who grasps at the bloody/messy underlying layer of these stories, reaching for the aspects that make them resonate with people across the centuries - and it's interesting how different the different books actually are in that area. The first book is really just interacting with Harry Potter and Narnia, the second book starts to deal with them on a modern myths --> ancient myths kind of level, and now it feels like in the third book, he's realized that the second book was maybe a bit Much and toned down the myth layer, but interwoven the stories much more deftly.
For the most part, in this book so far, I haven't actually been getting that LET'S GET BACK TO THE REAL PLOT feeling that kept hitting me in the second (I had the same reaction to Tolkien exactly; I was far more engaged with the Sam-Frodo-Gollum parts, to the point that rereading the books as an adult surprised me how much was actually going on in the other branches of the plot, because I'd forgotten most of it). I think it's working better in book 3 because he's gotten much defter at it, and each new segment connects in some obvious way to the one that just ended, which leads structurally to the next one, as opposed to the way they felt more spliced in book 2. Plus, he's not only got compelling plot happening in each story branch, but it's compelling in a very similar way, which I think is one of the things that makes interwoven plots with multiple narrators fall flat a lot of the time - I think the switches back and forth between, say, a small-scale story with just two characters to a big epic plot, for example, jars because you settle into the narrative style of one, then jump to another, regardless of what is actually happening each. And he's juggling more than two narrators here, and doing it well, including one major one who was introduced for this book alone, but still works! (I'm definitely taking notes here; it's really well done.)
I was kind of amazed that he was able to dive that deep into her psyche, though, and make the narrative of a depressed young woman very convincing. I haven't seen very many male authors do that (and almost none in genre fiction -- or if they have, I've missed it). He wrote some on Tor.com about how his own experience was actually much closer to Julia's -- he felt like he was spinning his wheels for about ten years or so, temping, feeling on the outside of things, like he just couldn't get started. I think he gets much deeper into Julia's depression, it's almost visceral.
Yeah, I think you linked to that in the last comment thread, before I noped out of it. I agree, it's very visceral and true to her experiences, in a way that's extremely rare for male authors - there are a few male authors who write female POV very well, but this is a very rare female POV to see done like this.
These are very immersive books in general. I'm going slower than I often do when I'm this into something, and that's because I have to, because there's just so much in each chapter that needs to be mentally unpacked (insights about narrative and people, creative worldbuilding, relationship stuff) that I keep having to stop and letting it unpack a bit before going on. The first book was FAR simpler, not just in structure but in how much you needed to absorb while reading. It's been awhile since I've read something like this. (I mean, Gatsby is also like that to a degree; it's something you get WAY more in litfic than in genre fiction. The general experience of reading this book makes me think of going through something like, god, I don't know, East of Eden or that kind of thing, the way it's so much bigger than you can really take on board at once, so you just fall into it and have to keep extricating yourself to breathe for a while.)
no subject
Same! It's tantalizing because you can almost unpack a ton of mythic significance to all of their scenes and symbolism ... almost. But not quite. I would be really interested to know what he was thinking there. (But will wait 'til I'm done reading before even trying to find out; I am making a lot of guesses about where it's all going and really enjoying knowing as little as I do.)
The second book is a very mythic-feeling book - actually more so than the third (which I'm now about halfway through). I think the mythological aspect of these books is what makes them feel so, for lack of a better word, resonant - he digs under Narnia, under Tolkien, to the myths and folktales that inspired them in the first place. Very Angela Carter, in a way. He's one of those writers who grasps at the bloody/messy underlying layer of these stories, reaching for the aspects that make them resonate with people across the centuries - and it's interesting how different the different books actually are in that area. The first book is really just interacting with Harry Potter and Narnia, the second book starts to deal with them on a modern myths --> ancient myths kind of level, and now it feels like in the third book, he's realized that the second book was maybe a bit Much and toned down the myth layer, but interwoven the stories much more deftly.
For the most part, in this book so far, I haven't actually been getting that LET'S GET BACK TO THE REAL PLOT feeling that kept hitting me in the second (I had the same reaction to Tolkien exactly; I was far more engaged with the Sam-Frodo-Gollum parts, to the point that rereading the books as an adult surprised me how much was actually going on in the other branches of the plot, because I'd forgotten most of it). I think it's working better in book 3 because he's gotten much defter at it, and each new segment connects in some obvious way to the one that just ended, which leads structurally to the next one, as opposed to the way they felt more spliced in book 2. Plus, he's not only got compelling plot happening in each story branch, but it's compelling in a very similar way, which I think is one of the things that makes interwoven plots with multiple narrators fall flat a lot of the time - I think the switches back and forth between, say, a small-scale story with just two characters to a big epic plot, for example, jars because you settle into the narrative style of one, then jump to another, regardless of what is actually happening each. And he's juggling more than two narrators here, and doing it well, including one major one who was introduced for this book alone, but still works! (I'm definitely taking notes here; it's really well done.)
I was kind of amazed that he was able to dive that deep into her psyche, though, and make the narrative of a depressed young woman very convincing. I haven't seen very many male authors do that (and almost none in genre fiction -- or if they have, I've missed it). He wrote some on Tor.com about how his own experience was actually much closer to Julia's -- he felt like he was spinning his wheels for about ten years or so, temping, feeling on the outside of things, like he just couldn't get started. I think he gets much deeper into Julia's depression, it's almost visceral.
Yeah, I think you linked to that in the last comment thread, before I noped out of it. I agree, it's very visceral and true to her experiences, in a way that's extremely rare for male authors - there are a few male authors who write female POV very well, but this is a very rare female POV to see done like this.
These are very immersive books in general. I'm going slower than I often do when I'm this into something, and that's because I have to, because there's just so much in each chapter that needs to be mentally unpacked (insights about narrative and people, creative worldbuilding, relationship stuff) that I keep having to stop and letting it unpack a bit before going on. The first book was FAR simpler, not just in structure but in how much you needed to absorb while reading. It's been awhile since I've read something like this. (I mean, Gatsby is also like that to a degree; it's something you get WAY more in litfic than in genre fiction. The general experience of reading this book makes me think of going through something like, god, I don't know, East of Eden or that kind of thing, the way it's so much bigger than you can really take on board at once, so you just fall into it and have to keep extricating yourself to breathe for a while.)