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3.75

Can I just say how much I love Vex? Tall, dark and sexy aside - I love the way that he can be supportive, but not mollycoddling. I love the whole "I will support you whatever you decide but, woman, making a damned decision!" and "Would you like me to get you a cross you can nail yourself on, dear?" (Paraphrasing).

I'm a little less enamored with Xandra, though I do like her, overall.

That said, I still have some issues with the book. (Of course.):

* It's a little overly repetitive. Most of this is because of the whole first person format which is not, as any regular readers of my reviews will know, my favorite perspective. I grok XAndy's uncertainty about her identity and what it means, and her general insecurity even aside from that, but compounded by it, and her irritation and being felt put upon and all... I really, really get it.

But I don't need hear the circular mental narrative repeat itself every coupla pages.

And it's not just the personal stuff, it's the world stuff... like how aristos are scared of humans because even though they and halvies are much stronger than humans, the humans outnumber them by a lot, and, what with modern technology and mob-mentalities and all, they could inflict lots of damage.

While it's important to the world of the story, and an issue she deals with both personally and on a larger scale, I really don't need to be reminded of that little tidbit. I mean, it had to be repeated at least a dozen times.

It almost makes me start to feel like the author thinks her audience is really stupid, or something.


* I would love for Alexandra to, um, I dunno... investigate shit. Seriously, if people didn't, like, walk up to her and give her a clue and a kick in the pants from time to time, I don't think anything would get done. And the whole (view spoiler)[walking into a trap thing really irritated me. It wouldn't have taken her much longer to give William a heads up notice... or something. (hide spoiler)]

She's also lucky that the bad guys in the book are prone to monologuing and shit.

If I recall correctly, this was an issue in the first book, too, and I'm not sure if it was just worse in this book, or if I noticed it more, but I hate whodunit type stories where the detective-type person sort of stumbles into the answer through sheer luck or happenstance as opposed to actual, erm, detecting.

***

That's all I can think of right now, and I know it's only two things but, considering what this book is and the way it's told, it's kinda two big things.

But, for all that, I still find the books enjoyable reads - to the point I'd say they're easily my favorite discovery of the year so far. They're quick, fun and compulsive. I want to keep reading when I'm reading, and I want to get back to it when I'm not reading. I like the characters, overall, and the world, and I like how, with a lot of good sci-fi and fantasy, it touches on real world type stuff through a mix of real issues (i.e. lesbian and transgender characters) and metaphor.

I mean, a lot of this book is about xenophobia and prejudice - both of Alexandra's personally, fighting the conflicting issues of her upbringing and trying to readjust her views based on new data, and of the larger society.

The way that fear of the unknown or strange can quickly turn to anger and lashing out, and the way that we're all guilty of it, in our own ways, and the best we can do is try to get over it and deal with it the best we can.

***

Oh, and did I mention Vex is way yummy? ;)

(Speaking of which, there was a moment where I was a bit scared where the story was going... romantically. Can't go into a lot of detail without giving stuff away, so, vaguely, I'll say I was afraid it could potentially go in a direction that I find tiresome and annoying*, and it didn't, and that was awesome.)

*(view spoiler)[Xandra discovers that Rye, the man she'd loved in academy, whom she thought was dead, was actually alive and in captivity... and I was SO scared it was gonna turn into an awful love triangle, her old love vs. her new one... but it totally didn't go down that path, and I kinda wanna kiss the author! (hide spoiler)]