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In continuation of my attempt to finally get around to reading the ARC's my mother picked up for me at a book fair in 2007 (because when I'm off the job, what I really want to be doing is reading unproofed copies of things!), I read Tara Bray Smith's Betwixt.
Betwixt... um... fits its title, I think. The word "betwixt" is a perfectly serviceable adjective, although at this point in the evolution of the English language, the only reason to use it instead of saying "between" is to add extra atmosphere, and your chances of successfully adding extra atmosphere instead of just sounding cheesy and insufferable are highly dependent on doing everything else exactly right. So, Betwixt basically has all the ingredients of a Holly Black novel, but they are a bit... mashed together, kind of. It's definitely a "people who like this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like" kind of book, because the plot and characterization aren't quite strong or original enough to hook someone who isn't already just like "I like teenagers and fairies and angst and unnecessarily dark things; I will take them intravenously if possible." There's a bunch of pseudosciencey stuff for people who like their fantasy pseudoscienced up (it is heavy on the pseudo. The whole second half of the book is basically Viv being like "ENERGY, ALSO GENETICS, ALSO ENERGY. COSMIC ENERGY. DID I SAY ENERGY ALREADY? AND DON'T FORGET GENETICS. COSMIC ENERGY GENETICS") I really wanted to hear more about the rest of the way the whole fae thing on Earth worked in this book (like the linna or limma or whatever other training the guides are supposed to help them learn) and less about cosmic universe energy (with extra genetics). The characterization is a little off, particularly the character of Moth--he is introduced as basically being a big creepy slimeball which is why it is surprising and annoying to the other characters that he is their fae mentor thingy; however, after about halfway through the book he completely stops being a big creepy slimeball, and when he becomes a viewpoint character his viewpoint does not have any sleazy thoughts at all, nor does it address his history of hitting on underage girls at all, even when he is being ruminatory about his past.
I found the story engaging enough while I was reading it, but I wasn't very happy with the ending. I don't think this book is a series yet but they basically leave it wide open for a Part II, because otherwise it is just one of those annoying books that has no ending because it just doesn't, and that is deep and realistic, SO THERE. Like, you don't have to wrap everything up with a bow like an 18th century romance, but Nix is like stuck in an ocean somewhere in an alternate dimension; there is a lot more story there.
I also basically wanted this story to be better because it's relatively rare to have a story where two of the three main characters are people of color and it's not like A Multiculturalism Story. Nix is Inuit and his family has dealt with a lot of shit because of that, but his magic powers have approximately nothing to do with mystical Native American spirituality nature stuff at all, which is kind of rare in any book containing both magic and Native Americans. Ondine is black and gets the same treatment other YA main characters get of being described in pointlessly flowery terms (she has "cinnamon" skin and there are a few mentions of braided/treated hair) instead of explicitly identified by race, at least until the end where all sorts of lineage and genetics stuff becomes important.
Nix' particular type of magic is that he is a "ringer," because all magic systems have funny lexicons, which frankly is one of my favorite parts of reading fantasy. However, "Ringer" is also a term for hugely nerdy LotR fans, so I kept laughing at it.
What's sad is I think this could have been a really, REALLY good fantasy book if Smith had had a much tougher editor. There's a great story in there, it's just told a bit... amateurishly. The issues are all ones of pacing, tone, continuity, and exposition, and those can all be fixed without needing to cook up a substantially different story.
Betwixt... um... fits its title, I think. The word "betwixt" is a perfectly serviceable adjective, although at this point in the evolution of the English language, the only reason to use it instead of saying "between" is to add extra atmosphere, and your chances of successfully adding extra atmosphere instead of just sounding cheesy and insufferable are highly dependent on doing everything else exactly right. So, Betwixt basically has all the ingredients of a Holly Black novel, but they are a bit... mashed together, kind of. It's definitely a "people who like this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like" kind of book, because the plot and characterization aren't quite strong or original enough to hook someone who isn't already just like "I like teenagers and fairies and angst and unnecessarily dark things; I will take them intravenously if possible." There's a bunch of pseudosciencey stuff for people who like their fantasy pseudoscienced up (it is heavy on the pseudo. The whole second half of the book is basically Viv being like "ENERGY, ALSO GENETICS, ALSO ENERGY. COSMIC ENERGY. DID I SAY ENERGY ALREADY? AND DON'T FORGET GENETICS. COSMIC ENERGY GENETICS") I really wanted to hear more about the rest of the way the whole fae thing on Earth worked in this book (like the linna or limma or whatever other training the guides are supposed to help them learn) and less about cosmic universe energy (with extra genetics). The characterization is a little off, particularly the character of Moth--he is introduced as basically being a big creepy slimeball which is why it is surprising and annoying to the other characters that he is their fae mentor thingy; however, after about halfway through the book he completely stops being a big creepy slimeball, and when he becomes a viewpoint character his viewpoint does not have any sleazy thoughts at all, nor does it address his history of hitting on underage girls at all, even when he is being ruminatory about his past.
I found the story engaging enough while I was reading it, but I wasn't very happy with the ending. I don't think this book is a series yet but they basically leave it wide open for a Part II, because otherwise it is just one of those annoying books that has no ending because it just doesn't, and that is deep and realistic, SO THERE. Like, you don't have to wrap everything up with a bow like an 18th century romance, but Nix is like stuck in an ocean somewhere in an alternate dimension; there is a lot more story there.
I also basically wanted this story to be better because it's relatively rare to have a story where two of the three main characters are people of color and it's not like A Multiculturalism Story. Nix is Inuit and his family has dealt with a lot of shit because of that, but his magic powers have approximately nothing to do with mystical Native American spirituality nature stuff at all, which is kind of rare in any book containing both magic and Native Americans. Ondine is black and gets the same treatment other YA main characters get of being described in pointlessly flowery terms (she has "cinnamon" skin and there are a few mentions of braided/treated hair) instead of explicitly identified by race, at least until the end where all sorts of lineage and genetics stuff becomes important.
Nix' particular type of magic is that he is a "ringer," because all magic systems have funny lexicons, which frankly is one of my favorite parts of reading fantasy. However, "Ringer" is also a term for hugely nerdy LotR fans, so I kept laughing at it.
What's sad is I think this could have been a really, REALLY good fantasy book if Smith had had a much tougher editor. There's a great story in there, it's just told a bit... amateurishly. The issues are all ones of pacing, tone, continuity, and exposition, and those can all be fixed without needing to cook up a substantially different story.
