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Jan. 28th, 2013 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOkay, let me start off by saying that I HUGELY enjoyed Quintana of Charyn, and by this point I REFUSE to believe that the Froi/Quintana duology is not basically a comedy at heart. It is! It must be! I mean, yes, traumatic backstories and dead babies and constant threat of war and/or murder and warnings for everything that needed to be warned for in the first two books (although much less rape in this one! I was glad about that), but for the first 3/4 of the book basically nothing happens except everyone having unwillingly awkward forced camping trips interspersed with romantic mishaps!
I mean, okay, on a more serious note, what it really is is a comedy in the Measure for Measure or Winter's Tale sense, where there are a lot of plot elements that are super weird and disturbing, and a lot of complicated and tragic themes explored to some extent, but all this is interspersed with wacky hijinks and in the end everybody but everybody gets paired off and nobody actually dies except the villains! VOILA: COMEDY.
Here is a list of the things in Quintana that made me crack up:
- the fact that EVERYBODY in secret princess hiding SUPER HATES each other after the first week because of how much they're all getting on each other's nerves and does not come back around to loving each other for another three months
- that time that Finnikin finally meets up with Froi and Gargarin and Lirah and they have the following conversation:
FINNIKIN: So . . . you ditched our country to hang out with these freakjobs?
FROI: No, you don't understand, first of all, they're my parents --
FINNIKIN: Your parents?
FROI: -- and second of all, THEY'RE TOTALLY USELESS. Every time I turn around someone's trying to kill one of them and it's SUPER ANNOYING.
FINNIKIN: . . . they're obscenely attractive, though. Like, damn.
FROI: . . . and I'm not?
FINNIKIN: Yeah, I mean, no offense, dude, but what happened there?
- and then Finnikin goes home to explain everything to Isaboe and they have this conversation:
ISABOE: So Froi ditched our country to hang out with those freakjobs?
FINNIKIN: Yeah, but, you know, he's been going through a lot of stuff in Charyn. Like, wait until you hear his backstory -
ISABOE: Uh, hello, did you not live through Finnikin of the Rock? I think I know from tragic backstories!
FINNIKIN: No, Isaboe, you don't understand, like, we went through a lot of stuff, but this Charyn stuff is the most crazy bizarre shit I have ever heard.
ISABOE: . . .
FINNIKIN: Also, Froi's parents are super hot. I just feel that's important to mention.
- that time Quintana announces to basically every important character in the story that Lucien is terrible in bed
- also that time Lucien spends an entire road trip telling Perri alllllll about his romantic angst about Phaedra and Perri is just like "PLEASE GOD, LUCIEN, NO ONE CARES
- basically every time that Lucien is flailing and useless.
- that time Gargarin is like "I've come up with a new mantra! Always look on the bright side of life! :D" and Froi is like ". . . what. Dad. Just. What. WE'RE IN A TRAGEDY." (No, you're not, Froi, you're in a comedy.)
- that time Froi accidentally reads a sex letter from his uncle's boyfriend and is forever traumatized
- that time someone helpfully tries to warn Froi and his family not to get nervous about heights:
LIRAH: You obviously have never been imprisoned on the roof of the tallest tower of a castle.
GARGARIN: Or hung upside down over a balcony staring down into a huge drop, waiting to die.
ARJURO: Or been CHAINED to a balcony over the abyss. Top that!
HAPLESS BYSTANDER: . . . . . okay! Fine! I'm sorry I said anything!
- that time Froi is getting bullied by some other kids and Lirah is like I WILL GO KNOCK THEIR HEADS TOGETHER and Froi is like "MOOOOM do you want to RUIN my LIFE, GOD!"
- that time Froi gets a HILARIOUSLY ILL-ADVISED TATTOO with the names of his MOM, his GIRLFRIEND, and his BEST FRIEND'S GIRLFRIEND oh my god I burst out laughing on the subway
- that time Celie comes home from spying and is like "I spent my vacation in the library! :D" and Isaboe is all "uh, what do you mean library, I sent you off to be the sexy kind of spy! COME ON, CELIE, BE LESS BORING"
- that time everybody in Lucien's village spends three days straight nagging him about how he should get together with that Phaedra already, she's such a nice girl
- that time Arjuro gets nominated to be the de facto OB-GYN for the kingdom of Charyn and is like "guys, I am one of only two gay characters in apparently all of these two kingdoms, why do I have to spend the rest of my natural life looking at ladybits ;____;"
- that time Quintana does some hilariously obvious matchmaking-by-letter between the only two characters who are left unattached at the end of the book, because EVERYONE MUST GET MARRIED. BECAUSE THIS IS A COMEDY.
- that time the entire ending crisis is a big misunderstanding caused by the fact that a TODDLER HAS BEEN EATING EVERYBODY'S LETTERS
- no, seriously, that is some wacky sitcom hijinks plot right there
- THIS BOOK IS A COMEDY. That is my thesis. Full stop.
One more note: I also really enjoy how Finnikin stuck pretty much razor-straight to the rule of one POV, but all throughout the Froi/Quintana duology POVs just KEEP PROLIFERATING until basically everyone has had one, because Finnikin was really successful and screw the rules, MELINA MARCHETTA CAN DO WHAT SHE WANTS.
I mean, okay, on a more serious note, what it really is is a comedy in the Measure for Measure or Winter's Tale sense, where there are a lot of plot elements that are super weird and disturbing, and a lot of complicated and tragic themes explored to some extent, but all this is interspersed with wacky hijinks and in the end everybody but everybody gets paired off and nobody actually dies except the villains! VOILA: COMEDY.
Here is a list of the things in Quintana that made me crack up:
- the fact that EVERYBODY in secret princess hiding SUPER HATES each other after the first week because of how much they're all getting on each other's nerves and does not come back around to loving each other for another three months
- that time that Finnikin finally meets up with Froi and Gargarin and Lirah and they have the following conversation:
FINNIKIN: So . . . you ditched our country to hang out with these freakjobs?
FROI: No, you don't understand, first of all, they're my parents --
FINNIKIN: Your parents?
FROI: -- and second of all, THEY'RE TOTALLY USELESS. Every time I turn around someone's trying to kill one of them and it's SUPER ANNOYING.
FINNIKIN: . . . they're obscenely attractive, though. Like, damn.
FROI: . . . and I'm not?
FINNIKIN: Yeah, I mean, no offense, dude, but what happened there?
- and then Finnikin goes home to explain everything to Isaboe and they have this conversation:
ISABOE: So Froi ditched our country to hang out with those freakjobs?
FINNIKIN: Yeah, but, you know, he's been going through a lot of stuff in Charyn. Like, wait until you hear his backstory -
ISABOE: Uh, hello, did you not live through Finnikin of the Rock? I think I know from tragic backstories!
FINNIKIN: No, Isaboe, you don't understand, like, we went through a lot of stuff, but this Charyn stuff is the most crazy bizarre shit I have ever heard.
ISABOE: . . .
FINNIKIN: Also, Froi's parents are super hot. I just feel that's important to mention.
- that time Quintana announces to basically every important character in the story that Lucien is terrible in bed
- also that time Lucien spends an entire road trip telling Perri alllllll about his romantic angst about Phaedra and Perri is just like "PLEASE GOD, LUCIEN, NO ONE CARES
- basically every time that Lucien is flailing and useless.
- that time Gargarin is like "I've come up with a new mantra! Always look on the bright side of life! :D" and Froi is like ". . . what. Dad. Just. What. WE'RE IN A TRAGEDY." (No, you're not, Froi, you're in a comedy.)
- that time Froi accidentally reads a sex letter from his uncle's boyfriend and is forever traumatized
- that time someone helpfully tries to warn Froi and his family not to get nervous about heights:
LIRAH: You obviously have never been imprisoned on the roof of the tallest tower of a castle.
GARGARIN: Or hung upside down over a balcony staring down into a huge drop, waiting to die.
ARJURO: Or been CHAINED to a balcony over the abyss. Top that!
HAPLESS BYSTANDER: . . . . . okay! Fine! I'm sorry I said anything!
- that time Froi is getting bullied by some other kids and Lirah is like I WILL GO KNOCK THEIR HEADS TOGETHER and Froi is like "MOOOOM do you want to RUIN my LIFE, GOD!"
- that time Froi gets a HILARIOUSLY ILL-ADVISED TATTOO with the names of his MOM, his GIRLFRIEND, and his BEST FRIEND'S GIRLFRIEND oh my god I burst out laughing on the subway
- that time Celie comes home from spying and is like "I spent my vacation in the library! :D" and Isaboe is all "uh, what do you mean library, I sent you off to be the sexy kind of spy! COME ON, CELIE, BE LESS BORING"
- that time everybody in Lucien's village spends three days straight nagging him about how he should get together with that Phaedra already, she's such a nice girl
- that time Arjuro gets nominated to be the de facto OB-GYN for the kingdom of Charyn and is like "guys, I am one of only two gay characters in apparently all of these two kingdoms, why do I have to spend the rest of my natural life looking at ladybits ;____;"
- that time Quintana does some hilariously obvious matchmaking-by-letter between the only two characters who are left unattached at the end of the book, because EVERYONE MUST GET MARRIED. BECAUSE THIS IS A COMEDY.
- that time the entire ending crisis is a big misunderstanding caused by the fact that a TODDLER HAS BEEN EATING EVERYBODY'S LETTERS
- no, seriously, that is some wacky sitcom hijinks plot right there
- THIS BOOK IS A COMEDY. That is my thesis. Full stop.
One more note: I also really enjoy how Finnikin stuck pretty much razor-straight to the rule of one POV, but all throughout the Froi/Quintana duology POVs just KEEP PROLIFERATING until basically everyone has had one, because Finnikin was really successful and screw the rules, MELINA MARCHETTA CAN DO WHAT SHE WANTS.
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Date: 2013-02-01 06:36 am (UTC)Also, I have to admit that while I did LOL at the trauma olympics conversations, I did find it genuinely kind of a gut punch when Gargarin told I forget who (Finnikin's dad?) to leave him and Lirah to the absolute misery of knowing the terrible things that had happened to their son in their absence. I ended up being really into Lirah/Gargarin throughout this book, and hold out desperate hope for a Lirah of Serker book.
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Date: 2013-02-01 02:02 pm (UTC)I would so, so read a Lirah of Serker book. And yeah, I really liked all the family stuff with Lirah and Gargarin and Arjuro and Froi, and it does genuinely get to me -- I mean, I mock it affectionately because of all the times when it's just awkward hilarious Little Miss Sunshine-style road trips, but that's not a bad thing n my book!