Eduardo Santiago
A lovely premise, but too contrived to work for me. The inconsistencies and plot holes were too big to ignore -- how do they bathe? have they never been caught in the rain?; and the journal, so cringe: that's not how people write in their journals, and it was awkward and took me out of the story, because all I could think was, okay, this is Hart slowly dribbling out little nuggets of story, so I can expect one more "shocker" then a chapter break. "Shocker" in quotes because no, not really: most of the main character's storyline is obvious to the reader from the first quarter, and I can't tell if that's intentional or not. It kills the tension.
Most disappointing is that the characters are so powerless. Things happen to them, they sort of respond but rarely in interesting ways; they're just guided by what the story needs. Hart is going for feminist, but I read the women as disempowered. Not what I expected after the kickass Weyward. Oh, and communication - yikes. Nobody here talks to one another! No real relationships (okay, maybe one). So many miscommunications, so many unresolved feelings because they're all so scared to talk.
A lovely premise, but too contrived to work for me. The inconsistencies and plot holes were too big to ignore -- how do they bathe? have they never been caught in the rain?; and the journal, so cringe: that's not how people write in their journals, and it was awkward and took me out of the story, because all I could think was, okay, this is Hart slowly dribbling out little nuggets of story, so I can expect one more "shocker" then a chapter break. "Shocker" in quotes because no, not really: most of the main character's storyline is obvious to the reader from the first quarter, and I can't tell if that's intentional or not. It kills the tension.
Most disappointing is that the characters are so powerless. Things happen to them, they sort of respond but rarely in interesting ways; they're just guided by what the story needs. Hart is going for feminist, but I read the women as disempowered. Not what I expected after the kickass Weyward. Oh, and communication - yikes. Nobody here talks to one another! No real relationships (okay, maybe one). So many miscommunications, so many unresolved feelings because they're all so scared to talk.