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Reviews - Malinda Lo, Dorothy L. Sayers
Jun. 12th, 2010 10:20 amAsh (Malinda Lo)
This is a lovely retelling of the Cinderella fairytale. It keeps a very fairytale-like tone, so at times it doesn't go as deeply into what happens or people's feelings as I would like, but there are beautiful descriptions and it's very easy to read. It's exciting to read a version of the story in which part of the love story is between two women.
I liked the changes to the story as I knew it -- Sidhean as the fairy godmother, and the element of actually having to pay for what you get from the fairies. I loved that the prince wasn't all that important. I liked that the young stepsister, Clara, is kind of likeable.
I wish the story spent more time on the love story, on really making the reader feel it -- both the strange attraction between Aisling and Sidhean, and the relationship between Aisling and Kaisa. I think this book would have really bowled me over if it had been like that.
As it is, it's fun, and often lovely.
Strong Poison (Dorothy L. Sayers)
Harriet Vane! I've been waiting for her. This book made me laugh a surprising amount, because Lord Peter Wimsey is in fine form, and also because things I wanted to happen happened -- as with Parker and Lady Mary.
Harriet Vane herself doesn't appear very much, I suppose, a couple of scenes, and Miss Climpson comes to the fore for a good section of it, but she's a character I'm rapidly coming to love, too.
Unfortunately, I read a spoiler before I read this, so I knew whodunnit and can't really comment on the mystery, but even without an actual mystery element, it's readable and fun.
Five Red Herrings (Dorothy L. Sayers)
Some bits of this were funny and just perfectly Peter Wimsey-ical. But a lot of it was routine painstaking working out of timetables and alibis and who was lying when and about what. It doesn't help that one rather feels that the murdered man deserved it, and the suspects don't. Or that the dialogue is mostly written with a stab at phonetically spelling out the Scottish accent/dialect. It's hard to read, and it isn't terribly rewarding, allow the last fifty pages or so is wonderful.
There isn't enough of any of the characters one cares about, and actually, if I were rereading the series some time in a couple of years, my advice to myself would be to skip this one, or just read the last fifty pages.
The part where it doesn't tell you what Wimsey found, or rather, didn't find, is infuriating. If you're an artist who works with paints, you'll know. If you don't, you'll go most of the book without knowing. Infuriating!s
Have His Carcase (Dorothy L. Sayers)
I had no idea what was going on for most of this book. The relationship between Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane was delightful -- some of their conversations made me grin from ear to ear in a most undignified way, and I love the character of Harriet. But the mystery... so much complication, and the pages on pages of discussion of how to crack the code didn't help.
Bunter gets a chance to shine too, which I liked a lot. Of course, there was very little of Parker, which balanced that pleasure. I love all the recurring characters!
More interesting than Five Red Herrings, to me, by virtue of being more emotionally engaging. But both mystery plots were a wee bit impenetrable, with the missing information in each of them.
This is a lovely retelling of the Cinderella fairytale. It keeps a very fairytale-like tone, so at times it doesn't go as deeply into what happens or people's feelings as I would like, but there are beautiful descriptions and it's very easy to read. It's exciting to read a version of the story in which part of the love story is between two women.
I liked the changes to the story as I knew it -- Sidhean as the fairy godmother, and the element of actually having to pay for what you get from the fairies. I loved that the prince wasn't all that important. I liked that the young stepsister, Clara, is kind of likeable.
I wish the story spent more time on the love story, on really making the reader feel it -- both the strange attraction between Aisling and Sidhean, and the relationship between Aisling and Kaisa. I think this book would have really bowled me over if it had been like that.
As it is, it's fun, and often lovely.
Strong Poison (Dorothy L. Sayers)
Harriet Vane! I've been waiting for her. This book made me laugh a surprising amount, because Lord Peter Wimsey is in fine form, and also because things I wanted to happen happened -- as with Parker and Lady Mary.
Harriet Vane herself doesn't appear very much, I suppose, a couple of scenes, and Miss Climpson comes to the fore for a good section of it, but she's a character I'm rapidly coming to love, too.
Unfortunately, I read a spoiler before I read this, so I knew whodunnit and can't really comment on the mystery, but even without an actual mystery element, it's readable and fun.
Five Red Herrings (Dorothy L. Sayers)
Some bits of this were funny and just perfectly Peter Wimsey-ical. But a lot of it was routine painstaking working out of timetables and alibis and who was lying when and about what. It doesn't help that one rather feels that the murdered man deserved it, and the suspects don't. Or that the dialogue is mostly written with a stab at phonetically spelling out the Scottish accent/dialect. It's hard to read, and it isn't terribly rewarding, allow the last fifty pages or so is wonderful.
There isn't enough of any of the characters one cares about, and actually, if I were rereading the series some time in a couple of years, my advice to myself would be to skip this one, or just read the last fifty pages.
The part where it doesn't tell you what Wimsey found, or rather, didn't find, is infuriating. If you're an artist who works with paints, you'll know. If you don't, you'll go most of the book without knowing. Infuriating!s
Have His Carcase (Dorothy L. Sayers)
I had no idea what was going on for most of this book. The relationship between Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane was delightful -- some of their conversations made me grin from ear to ear in a most undignified way, and I love the character of Harriet. But the mystery... so much complication, and the pages on pages of discussion of how to crack the code didn't help.
Bunter gets a chance to shine too, which I liked a lot. Of course, there was very little of Parker, which balanced that pleasure. I love all the recurring characters!
More interesting than Five Red Herrings, to me, by virtue of being more emotionally engaging. But both mystery plots were a wee bit impenetrable, with the missing information in each of them.
