De la Cruz, Melissa - Masquerade

[oyceter]

This is book two in the Blue Bloods trilogy (apparently it will be a trilogy of trilogies).

I am not quite sure why I read this, as the first book was fairly mediocre, as was this. But I did, and I will probably pick up the others as well, unless something is sporkworthily bad.

I lie; I do know why. It has reincarnation and fallen angels and childhood unrequited love! Definitely not the best versions of those tropes, but hi, my buttons, let me show you them!

Anyway, in this installment, Schuyler and company further confront the threat that manifests in book one, and we get more vampire mythology. I am still bored by the Schuyler-Jack possible romance, I still root for Oliver (that would be the aforementioned childhood unrequited love button), and I am still oddly rooting for Mimi.

Mimi is shallow and bitchy and portrayed as all-around horrible, but because I know I'm not supposed to like her and supposed to like Schuyler and Bliss instead, I find myself cheering for her in all her awfulness. Though, in de la Cruz's defense, Mimi isn't completely demonized, and I am strangely drawn to her vulnerability in her somewhat incestuous (reincarnation makes all things complicated!) relationship with her twin.

I still dislike the brand-name-dropping, though I suspect that's why a lot of teenage girls read de la Cruz, and I particularly dislike the emphasis on the pale pale pale, stick thin beauty of Mimi, Schuyler and Bliss. And I dislike the classism with regard to Bliss' stepmother BobiAnn, who is portrayed as the crassest sort of nouveau-riche, as contrasted with the now-impoverished but formerly aristocratic Shuyler. And I roll my eyes at the Blue Bloods being at the root of most of humanity's great accomplishments.

But I will probably get the next book from the library anyway, because I want to know what happens to Mimi and Jack and Oliver and Bliss.

Comments

[littlebutfierce]

But I will probably get the next book from the library anyway, because I want to know what happens to Mimi and Jack and Oliver and Bliss.

And then you can post about it so I don't have to read it! I read the first book & wasn't hugely impressed (& was way tired of the pale pale Pilgrim-ancestor beauty stuff too), but if someone I know is going to read all of them & post about what happens, I want to know. ;)

[keilexandra]

I still read the Clique books. Shameful reason: fashion is one of my buttons.