About Me

My photo
Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States
Hello, and welcome to my book review blog! Most of the books I read will fall under the banner of adult or YA fantasy, but I may occasionally stray in a different direction. My TBR pile is suitably overwhelming, but I have high hopes of getting to the bottom of it sometime this century 🤍🤍🤍🤍 [Banner image artwork by Yuki Midorikawa]

Sunday, May 1, 2022

SWORDHEART by T. Kingfisher


All right, I have a confession to make: I DNFed a good book.

I tried so hard to finish it, I really did. It was as if not finishing it would be some sort of failure on both my part and the author's. But that's just not remotely the case. Sometimes a book can be really good—but just not for you.

I think that's definitely the case with Swordheart. I started the book with great anticipation, as I follow the author on Twitter and she's honestly just delightful. The first few chapters were absolutely hilarious. I really, really love T. Kingfisher's authorial voice; it's light and funny and warm, all at the same time. I really identified with that voice, and would without question pick up another book by this author.

The banter between the main character (?) and the love interest (?)—okay, the question marks are because the POV makes it difficult to tell which is actually the main character, or even if they're BOTH the main character, but more on that later—is honestly adorable, and they initially had really cute chemistry. Sarkis is polite and honorable, and maybe a little too eager to run his sword through the first person who so much as smirks in Halla's general direction. Halla is funny and maybe a bit too self-deprecating, but I still really love her as a protagonist. There was also a side character, Zale, whom I also really liked, and I would happily follow them on their own adventure.

Another thing I enjoyed was the lack of serious, world-ending stakes. Halla just doesn't want to have to marry her creepy cousin, so she has to hire a lawyer to plead her case. It was a bit like reading a fantasy Dickens novel (only with female characters who actually feel like people).

Ultimately, it was a conglomeration of several different things that made this a DNF for me. And I actually stopped with probably only about 50 pages left to go. I just didn't want to force myself to keep going, and I realized I didn't really care what happened anymore. But why?

Part of that is the way the romance is constructed. For some readers, it'll no doubt be an utter delight, but after Sarkis facepalmed for the twenty-eighth time over Halla's loquacious tendencies, then proceeded to drool over her massive breasts, I started to lose interest. I mean, my favorite book is Jane Eyre. When it comes to romance, it's that intense mental and emotional connection that I'm really looking for. Physical attraction is quite boring for me, and that seems to be Sarkis' and Halla's main basis for attraction toward one another. That will only carry me so far in a story, sadly. 

But the biggest hurdle for me, if I'm being quite honest, was the POV. This book has actual head-hopping! A chapter will start from Halla's POV, then, after a couple paragraphs, shift to Sarkis'. Then after a few paragraphs more, we're back in Halla's head (complete with italicized thought for both). Now, to be clear, this is not third person omniscient; it really is head-hopping. I found this terminally confusing, and it's something that made it impossible for me as a reader to ever really lose myself in the story.

Beyond that, there are just a few nitpicks, one of which is the gender of the character Zale. I was excited to see a non-binary character, however... it's never really said HOW the characters immediately know Zale is non-binary. Are they wearing something to indicate this? Is there some missing bit of world-building I'm not seeing? Just how in the world does Halla see Zale and just immediately start thinking about and addressing them as "they"? As a non-binary person, this bugged me, because believe me: no one, literally no one, can tell what your pronouns are just by looking at you. If that were possible, our lives would all be so much easier.

The way the story handled sexuality in general was somewhat personally off-putting, too. Halla's husband was clearly asexual, but the way Halla and Sarkis laugh about him and dismiss him is... honestly, really painful. HOWEVER, I think this was probably, more than anything, lack of knowledge on the author's part. The book was published in 2018, after all. I wouldn't expect her to make that kind of mistake today. Asexuality is a lot more widely known and understood... not that we don't still have a ways to go. 😕

Additionally, the heterosexuality just felt so... blatant? 😂 I don't know how else to describe it. But Halla and Sarkis seemed to constantly wonder about what the other desired in a man or woman, and both assumed the other ONLY liked the opposite sex. Sarkis would constantly entertain thoughts about what a red-blooded man should find attractive (spoiler alert: women with massive breasts), and it was just weird. For me, anyway. 

My final nitpick has to do with Halla's age: 36. Such a great age for a romantic heroine! (And Sarkis is also older; it's never stated how old, unless I missed it, but I'm getting 40s-ish.) Yet again and again, the book acted as if she were 66 instead of 36. I mean, I'm sorry, but 36 is NOT old! A 36 year old woman is potentially still a VERY attractive woman. It was really quite bizarre to pretend otherwise. And why not give Sarkis the same treatment? I suppose no one questions that a man in his 40s would still be attractive.

So, in the end, all of that combined led to me DNFing a genuinely well-written book. And yet I would definitely recommend T. Kingfisher as an author, and hope to pick up another of her books soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment