Brook, Meljean - Demon Moon
Thu, Sep. 30th, 2010 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterSavitri Murray found out about Guardians and demons and all that fun stuff in Demon Angel, and she also met irresistibly handsome and vain vampire Colin Ames-Beaumont. Plot ensues, some of it involving demons and nosferatu and vampires and Chaos and almost all of it completely incomprehensible. And I even have my plot brain back! So for once, I don't think it's just me, especially since I just reread Demon Angel, and the major twist in the end is kind of cheated.
Savi herself I liked a lot: she's really awesome and inventive in just the first chapter and continues to know who she is and what she wants throughout the book. I also loved that she was a mixed-race character who was raised by the desi side of the family; there's pain around her white relatives, but the book isn't about the tragedy of being mixed race. I felt a little conflicted about her characterization as a computer nerd and geek. On the one hand, there's the whole Asian nerd thing. On the other hand, she's so cool! She has Sailor Moon posters! And is an awesomesauce hacker! And grad school dropout! To me, she didn't feel like the Asian nerd stereotype and more like a fictionalized and awesome-ized version of people like me on DW, but YMMV. I wish that Meljean Brook hadn't brought in arranged marriages, even though she did it in a way saying, "Arranged marriages are not that big of a deal, get over it," because in the end, it had to not work out to make the central romance work, which undercut the message a bit. When we were in Savi's POV, it felt like her being desi was simply a part of her, not something that made her different, which is very rare in romances.
Unfortunately, any time the POV is Colin's, Savi smells like cinnamon and mango and has caramel skin and chocolate eyes. I also felt it was an extremely bad choice on Brook's part to make Colin a former British aristocrat who clearly lived through the colonization of India. Brook doesn't refer to this at all, and it was the elephant in the room for me. Also, at one point, Savi questions Colin's relatives' acceptance of her and her grandmother because her white grandparents rejected her, and Colin is all insulted she would think that. Me, I just wanted to shake him and say anyone in his family could be a racist asshat, and for that matter, given that he probably profited off of the colonization of India, he really was in no position to say. And I wanted to smack him any time he spoke Hindi.
Finally, the plot makes no sense! Brook gets much better at it later; she's never stellar at characterization or coherent plot, but she has enough cool bits to make up for it. On the other hand, things in this book just make no sense whatsoever. The conflicts between Savi and Colin don't feel very real, particularly because Brook holds off a little too long on a backstory reveal so we don't understand why there is tension between the two, and the final big "why we can't be together" reason is solved in a way that made me roll my eyes. Also, the dynamics of bloodlust and vampirism get much more interesting later on in the series, although I like that Brook uses vampire sexiness as a negative feature instead of the way it's usually used in paranormals.
That said, I kind of still love the Guardian series because it is so cracktastic and has the good sort of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of plotting, and because Brook has some really awesome female characters. Her characterization isn't always the best, but her heroines are almost always more interesting and more tortured than her heroes, to whom she tries to give angst but largely fails.
Savi herself I liked a lot: she's really awesome and inventive in just the first chapter and continues to know who she is and what she wants throughout the book. I also loved that she was a mixed-race character who was raised by the desi side of the family; there's pain around her white relatives, but the book isn't about the tragedy of being mixed race. I felt a little conflicted about her characterization as a computer nerd and geek. On the one hand, there's the whole Asian nerd thing. On the other hand, she's so cool! She has Sailor Moon posters! And is an awesomesauce hacker! And grad school dropout! To me, she didn't feel like the Asian nerd stereotype and more like a fictionalized and awesome-ized version of people like me on DW, but YMMV. I wish that Meljean Brook hadn't brought in arranged marriages, even though she did it in a way saying, "Arranged marriages are not that big of a deal, get over it," because in the end, it had to not work out to make the central romance work, which undercut the message a bit. When we were in Savi's POV, it felt like her being desi was simply a part of her, not something that made her different, which is very rare in romances.
Unfortunately, any time the POV is Colin's, Savi smells like cinnamon and mango and has caramel skin and chocolate eyes. I also felt it was an extremely bad choice on Brook's part to make Colin a former British aristocrat who clearly lived through the colonization of India. Brook doesn't refer to this at all, and it was the elephant in the room for me. Also, at one point, Savi questions Colin's relatives' acceptance of her and her grandmother because her white grandparents rejected her, and Colin is all insulted she would think that. Me, I just wanted to shake him and say anyone in his family could be a racist asshat, and for that matter, given that he probably profited off of the colonization of India, he really was in no position to say. And I wanted to smack him any time he spoke Hindi.
Finally, the plot makes no sense! Brook gets much better at it later; she's never stellar at characterization or coherent plot, but she has enough cool bits to make up for it. On the other hand, things in this book just make no sense whatsoever. The conflicts between Savi and Colin don't feel very real, particularly because Brook holds off a little too long on a backstory reveal so we don't understand why there is tension between the two, and the final big "why we can't be together" reason is solved in a way that made me roll my eyes. Also, the dynamics of bloodlust and vampirism get much more interesting later on in the series, although I like that Brook uses vampire sexiness as a negative feature instead of the way it's usually used in paranormals.
That said, I kind of still love the Guardian series because it is so cracktastic and has the good sort of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink type of plotting, and because Brook has some really awesome female characters. Her characterization isn't always the best, but her heroines are almost always more interesting and more tortured than her heroes, to whom she tries to give angst but largely fails.
(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 1st, 2010 02:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Oct. 2nd, 2010 12:09 am (UTC)Also, I don't know if it is helpful, but Sogang has a free online course for Korean: http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/
I went to their five-week summer program and really liked how they focus on listening and speaking, but I haven't tried the online course, so I can't say how it is.
And now, kdramas!
My two favs are Coffee Prince and Dal Ja's Spring. Coffee Prince has some amazing highs (and gender bending!), but it does stumble a bit more near the end. Dal Ja's Spring, imho, doesn't hit the same highs, but it's much more even all around. I also really love the secondary romance in Coffee Prince, and Gong Yoo is so adorable! I love DJS because it's about working women and although there are some bits pitting women against each other that I don't like, the whole thing passes the Bechdel test with ease, and I love that it also has women at varying ages (one of my fav relationships is the one between Dal Ja's mom and her mother-in-law). Also, Tae Bong is adorable and my Sekrit Fantasy BF.
I'm only 6 eps into The Women Who Still Want to Marry and really like the age demographic (women in their thirties) and the talk about work. The romantic lead isn't nearly as cute as Tae Bong in DJS, but so far the show has managed to make me laugh so hard I fell off the sofa three times in just 6 eps.
Fantasy Couple/Couple or Trouble is more flawed, esp. with female relationships, but I love the snotty main character and the way it flips the usual rich guy/poor girl on its head.
I haven't actually seen it, but have heard lots of good things about the family drama Life Is Beautiful, and it has a gay relationship in it which I think was making headlines in Korea when I was there.
I'm also behind on kdrama watching, but Coffee House is on the list for Kang Ji-Hwan, even though I think I heard the ending wasn't as great, and many people I know have liked Cinderella's Sister (although again, I heard the ending wasn't that great). I've also heard lots of good things about My Girlfriend Is a Gumiho.
Mostly I watch stuff on DramaFever these days, although sadly, they still don't have DJS. I get most of my reviews from www.dramabeans.com.
Hope this helps!
(no subject)
Tue, Oct. 5th, 2010 01:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 8th, 2010 05:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 1st, 2010 04:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Oct. 2nd, 2010 12:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 1st, 2010 07:01 pm (UTC)I helps sensitize me in my own reading.
I agree with your impression of Savi being a fictionalised you, that's one of the reasons I read you (not your Savi-ness, but your geeky interests which intersect with mine).
The last line rings true to me. When I think back on the last book and it's tortured vampire hero, he was nothing to what the heroine went through (not to mention that she orchestrated him becoming a vampire in the first place) in her hundreds of years of life.
(no subject)
Sat, Oct. 2nd, 2010 12:12 am (UTC)Glad the review helped, although I tack on the always-there warning that I'm not desi and not mixed-race, so it's very likely I'm missing stuff too.
But definitely agree that Savi is awesome! And so with you on the last book... I loved Rosalia but was kind of meh about Deacon.
(no subject)
Sat, Oct. 2nd, 2010 11:17 am (UTC)As for poc-viewpoint - of course your background isn't Indian or even half, but you don't self-identify as white - while I realistically can identify as noting but that(okay I know I have inherited my father's temper and my mum cooks some Syrian dishes mellowed down for German tastebuds which I still love to eat and sometimes even know how to cook - and we do get some visits from Syria and I've been to Syria four times in my life - but overall that culture doesn't inform what I read or watch or listen to or think about) => so any viewpoint that isn't focussed from the white majority makes me more sensitive.
Actually I think you specifically (and that International Blog against Racism movement) were my very first contact with viewpoints of genre media I read from non-dominant culture viewpoints. And introducing me to white privilege, etc. And from your commenters I have followed other links and read more in that vein.
Which makes me glad you have more energy to blog again, by the way.
(no subject)
Sun, Oct. 3rd, 2010 06:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sun, Oct. 3rd, 2010 06:55 pm (UTC)