Monette, Sarah - The Mirador

[oyceter]

Hrm, I'm not quite sure how to write about this. I feel I won't be able to judge several things very well until the next book comes out; contrary to most of the reviews I've read on this, I didn't really feel it stood well by itself.

Mildmay and Felix are back narrating, this time accompanied by Mehitabel's POV, which I greatly enjoyed. I continue to be impressed with Monette's handling of voice. My favorite is still Mildmay's, but I very much like Mehitabel's as well, particularly how theater manages to work its way into almost everything. It's two indictions (2 years, roughly) after the events of The Virtu, but both Felix and Mildmay are suffering the aftereffects. While Felix does his court stuff and worries about Malkar's legacies, Mildmay attempts to resolve a mystery from his past, and Mehitabel gets caught up in intrigue.

I wasn't as emotionally caught up in this book as I was in the first two; part of that may be because I was very grumpy while reading it (didn't have to do with the book), but part of it is also because the characters don't feel like they're in danger. Sure, there's some emotional stress, but none of it compares with the stakes of the first two books. Er, I suppose Mehitabel has fairly high emotional stakes, but even though she referred to them frequently, I never felt the urgency.

Also, while Felix and Mildmay do get some emotional growth in the book (yay!! especially since the first two basically just tears them down), it's amidst a whole lot of personal misery. It's not as angstful as the first two, but watching Felix in particular fuck up all his relationships (I hope this is not a spoiler, given Felix) was still irritating. And it got to a point in which I was reading and thinking that things might just be hopeless for both Felix and Mildmay, that their defenses were too ingrained, that Felix's selfishness and self-centeredness and Mildmay's difficulty expressing himself would never be able to change. It was a realistic portrayal of traits and a nice change from the usual wave a magic wand and suddenly realize the Error of Your Ways! But still difficult to read.

I had a hard time pinning down the personalities of people outside of the POV characters, with the exception of Stephen and Shannon, both of whom I was surprised to like. I suspect some of this was because of their interactions with Mehitabel, who is much better at conveying how people are (to me, at least). Felix just sort of runs roughshod over others and provokes flamboyant responses, and Mildmay's background and history tends to make others overreact as well.

On the other hand, just when I was about to write off the entire book as set-up for the next book, the plot comes crashing together and lots of stuff happens. So, still looking forward to the next one, but glad that we may get to see Felix out of the Mirador. (I got a little bored reading about the various ways Felix provokes people.)

Links:
- rivkat's review
- gwyneira's review
- kate_nepveu's review

Comments

[ginny-t.livejournal.com]

I'm a little torn about the new POV. I like Mehitabel, and like her more as a POV character. But there was such a shortage of Felix POV. It was torturous. Any time there was a Felix heading I bounced, and they were so few & far between and made of frustration and shortness.

I really liked seeing Felix & Mildmay through her eyes. They don't see each other properly (part of the pretty brokenness), so it's nice to have her see them. (I particularly loved her observation on Felix's mis-matched eyes.)

You make an excellent point about Felix as an unreliable narrator. He really is such a prick. I still cling to that brief glimmer of hope when Felix went into a rage and Mildmay saw what it hid and I went all *_*, but then I thought about just how much work and effort and hurt would be involved in getting through and then I fear for poor Mildmay. (And I remember at least 2 times when he thought "what did X think of me that he though I could Y". ack!)

I agree that the pacing and the feeling of it were very different from the first 2. When the climax fell into place, I went a little dizzy with the speed of it all, but then I looked back and saw that it was all building up to that but had been doing so in such a gradual manner that it was barely noticeable. (I also really liked the way Mildmay talked up hocus-guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember as he was bringing *spoiler* to *spoiler*. It was a very clever move on his part. ^_^)

[oyceter]

Hee, I don't actually complain about lack of Felix POV because I mostly spend them wanting to whap him over the head. Though I think you're right about the frustration and the shortness; I felt that for all the POVs, especially since there would be multiple POVs per chapter. I wanted larger chunks per POV, even if it meant more time skipping, just because I have a really hard time keeping track of multiple plotlines already, and it's increased when each plotline is split into teeny narrative snippets.

The climax was so fast! It was really weird -- I felt like absolutely nothing was happening for 3/4 of the book and then suddenly PLOT!

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

I feel exactly the same about it: it read as more of the first part of a book than Melusine did to me. (So I've decided to wait for the fourth and review them together in a big glorious yelling-at-Felix crash.)

I did like Mehitabel's POV, and I really really like Stephen, while staring at Shannon in disbelief and going 'if you love him, then why?' And I always love Mildmay, and the 'sweetheart' part made me flail like a fish aground no matter how much I want to smack Felix sometimes.

[oyceter]

Yeah... I was a little less boggled at Shannon because it's been enough time that I've forgotten how jerky he was to Felix, but yes.

Mildmay! *flails happily*