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

[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*