The Bone Palace by Amanda Downum
My rating: 3/5 cats
wow. so i just read mike’s “i’m not even finished with the book yet but already i have lots of thoughts” review, and i realize i am out of my depth here. when did the bodice rippers club become so intellectual? i thought we were just reading books to make fun of *koff* i mean reading books we would not ordinarily read in order to determine their appeal factors for others.
but then we began a slow shift into the fantasy genre and now everyone’s getting all smart. i did not sign up for intellectual discussions!! i signed up for giggling about “throbbing members.”
hmmm…
maybe i was always the only one giggling while everyone else was contributing intellectual gems.
story of my life.
eh! mentioned in the group that she thought this wouldn’t be a very good book for infrequent fantasy readers, but from where i am sitting, i have to disagree. after reading her review, she feels like she would have enjoyed this way back when, in the throes of her fantasy reading, but because she has read too much (and better) in the genre, this one left her flat. as someone who is pretty much brand-new to the genre, i don’t have any background, the tropes aren’t worn out to me; this is all new ground. and so i probably liked it more than people who have read extensively in the genre and may be picking up on stuff that may be derivative. if i read fantasy more exclusively, i many have found less to like.
because, yeah—i thought this was fun. i liked the names and the casual attitude towards magic and the outfits—if these characters were on project runway, i think it would be a great season. necromancer v. demon v. transgendered consort. oh, tim gunn would have his hands full.
but i am starting to enjoy my tentative dips into fantasy (and i know i have to dip into eh’s box of generosity ♥) i like not knowing the rules because then i don’t have any expectations. i never feel like “aha! i saw that coming!!” because fantasy can do whatever it wants, it can just casually toss in some vampires and body switching and what can you do?? you just keep reading because it’s fantasy and anything goes! i mean, obviously it has to remain true to the built world, but magic is a pretty convenient deus ex machina for wrapping shit up.
but this doesn’t feel lazy. she really managed to create a dense world here. there are a lot of details. i got confused a bit, which may have been because i didn’t read the first book in the series, or it may be because i frequently get confused in crazy world-building scenarios with the magic and the different races and the unfamiliar politics. i’m not even solid on the history of the british monarchy, don’t expect me to keep fake kings and queens in my head…
but it kept me engaged as a reader. of all the members of this bodice rippers group, i think i am the most tolerant of the books we have read. i haven’t hated any of them, even when they weren’t to my taste. some have been silly, some frivolous, some could have used some editing/sensitivity training, but they have been nice escapes from my otherwise intensely intellectual reading regimen. (insert implied snort here) this one is probably the best written of all the ones we have read, although i enjoyed the world house more, for all its puppy-sloppiness.
ugh.
i’m sure elizabeth and ceridwen et al. will write more incisive reviews of this when they read it. if i were you, i would wait for those.
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