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May. 27th, 2011 11:24 amFirst of all: quick reminder for the people who are interested in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fma_ladyfest but have not yet gotten around to signing up, the deadline is in one (1) week! SO MANY AWESOME PROMPTS ALREADY, so little time to go back to the sign-up post and spend all my day admiring them. Oh, the hardships of modding.
Second of all: here is a booklog that is very difficult, because how on earth do you talk about Holly Black's Red Glove without spoiling all of White Cat? I mean, the second book is all about the consequences and fallout of what happens in the first book, and the consequences and fallout and twisty issues of ethics and identity and loyalty are handled I think extremely well - I can say that much at least. And I can reiterate, in general terms, how fascinating this world of curse workers is - where being a memory-worker means that every time you charm someone else's memory you lose a little bit of your own, where being an emotion-worker means that if you work somebody else not only are your own emotions unstable, but you can never, ever be sure how they really feel about you. I said this in my review of White Cat too, but I love how much these books question identity. If a human being is made up of their memories and their emotions, then after those things have been messed with, can you call any part of their personality 'real'?
But this is still not saying anything new about Red Glove as opposed to White Cat. Family and friendships are still as complicated as you would expect when they involve extensive memory and emotion work, with associated trust issues, and also, the Mafia! Murders are still usually not what they look like! Cassel's school friends, Sam the cheesy-special-effects nerd and Danica the idealistic hippie, continue to be my personal favorites, and Cassel continues to be totally perplexed about how to deal with them! This book series continues to be one of the best I have read in the past year!
( Oh, whatever, on to spoilers. )
fma_ladyfest but have not yet gotten around to signing up, the deadline is in one (1) week! SO MANY AWESOME PROMPTS ALREADY, so little time to go back to the sign-up post and spend all my day admiring them. Oh, the hardships of modding.Second of all: here is a booklog that is very difficult, because how on earth do you talk about Holly Black's Red Glove without spoiling all of White Cat? I mean, the second book is all about the consequences and fallout of what happens in the first book, and the consequences and fallout and twisty issues of ethics and identity and loyalty are handled I think extremely well - I can say that much at least. And I can reiterate, in general terms, how fascinating this world of curse workers is - where being a memory-worker means that every time you charm someone else's memory you lose a little bit of your own, where being an emotion-worker means that if you work somebody else not only are your own emotions unstable, but you can never, ever be sure how they really feel about you. I said this in my review of White Cat too, but I love how much these books question identity. If a human being is made up of their memories and their emotions, then after those things have been messed with, can you call any part of their personality 'real'?
But this is still not saying anything new about Red Glove as opposed to White Cat. Family and friendships are still as complicated as you would expect when they involve extensive memory and emotion work, with associated trust issues, and also, the Mafia! Murders are still usually not what they look like! Cassel's school friends, Sam the cheesy-special-effects nerd and Danica the idealistic hippie, continue to be my personal favorites, and Cassel continues to be totally perplexed about how to deal with them! This book series continues to be one of the best I have read in the past year!
( Oh, whatever, on to spoilers. )
