Mari Musings

My diary entries have officially bled over into insufferable internet oversharing. I am constantly complaining about books I read in my diary, a safe place to do so by nature. I regularly crash out while reading Harper L. Woods books, which is a bit sad. Her writing is like eating Walmart sheet cake — it is no boutique cupcake yet still delicious.

I finally finished Of Flesh & Bones #3 after starting it 2 months ago. I had to take a break because What Lurks Between the Fates because it's so damn boring and frustrating. I'm considering dropping the series altogether after the piss ending of Fates. The plot is nowhere in sight; I have few answers promised in Shadows and teased throughout the book; the evil of the main villain is horribly contrived; and worst of all, I could hardly call it a romance.

I reread some key moments of the first book, and I remembered why I liked this series in the first place. Caelum is mysterious, caring, charismatic, and questions the status quo. It was pretty obvious from the start that he is the fae bound to Estrella by fate, but even in it's predictability, I loved the story. In Fates, Caelum—pigheaded and obnoxious as he is—hardly has any meaningful screentime. Seriously, even the chapters from his perspective add nothing to his character or the narrative. He's basically a Ken doll. The story of Fates is an unresolved power struggled between Queen Mab and Estrella, Caelum acting more as a speedbump through repetitive and painfully unsexy romance scenes.

And Queen Mab herself was an a compelling and likable villain at the start of the books. She is a misandrist legend who understands that men can only hold her back in a medieval, misogynistic world. But in killing her soulmate, she also destroyed half of her soul, sending her into madness. Her brutality and lust for power is a great foil for Estrella who embraces her power to oppose that same misogyny, escaping a sexist status quo. Instead of leaning into this similarity, Woods completely discredits Mab by making her (and her party) female rapists. Of course, being a rapist is unforgivable and completely undermines the relatability of her character. Woods effectively threw away any narrative tension that had been built up. It's so fucking annoying.

And as I was crashing out about this in my diary a couple months ago, I came to a moment of clarity. Like Girl — put the book down. So I did... and when I finally finished it, I was just as disappointed as I expected to be. UGH!

I love Woods writing style, the gore, and her willingness to 'go there.' Seriously, there was a moment in Shadows where Caelum and Estrella were afraid they were actually step siblings — which was hilarious and so awkward. Woods doesn't pull her punches, and I love that. But she doesn't know where her story is going. After I went back and reread some of Veil, I remembered how good it was, which makes the undelivered promise of Fates sting that much more. I want to know where the story is going, but there are FOUR more books in the series and counting. At the pace the story is going, I don't know if I'm willing to invest my time in a story that will ultimately just disappoint me. I'm tempted to read reviews, but I don't want to be spoiled.

I think at the very least, I will take a break from the series and come back when I can't handle the curiosity any longer.

On a related note, I'm always afraid when I write these venty reviews that the authors I complain about will stumble upon them one day. I hope that it is understood that my moaning and bellyaching comes from a place of love for the series. If I simply didn't care, I wouldn't bother.

Watching: Grey's Anatomy s7 — SLOWLY... Dudu is obsessed

Reading: you already know ha ha ha

Listening: Polly Von

Playing: Baldur's Gate 3

I recently finished What Lies Beyond the Veil by Harper L. Woods. I really enjoyed the Coven duology, and as such, I picked up her other series. While I love fantasy in general, I had some reservations about it initially. My issue is that fae worldbuilding can be tedious to read. I dislike lore info dumping in the first few chapters, and I've noticed that is a persistent issue in this new wave of gothic fae dark romantasy novels. I love Woods' writing style though, so I set my reservations aside. It took me awhile to warm up to the book as the first 50 to 100 pages are slow paced and painful. It's almost too much information about the FMC's shitty life subjected to lore appropriate misogyny and abuse. Like, I get it. She's suffering. She's really going through it. Her life sucks. As readers, we know she's going to have some sexy fairy guy come save her, and I think about half of the first act could have been cut.

I swear on my love, I enjoyed this book. It just took a while to get going. I'm also a glass-half-full kind of reader. I'm able to look past narrative and character decisions that I wouldn't have made, or that I find obnoxious and weak. Woods' prose is vivid and dramatic, drawing a picture of a viscerally beautiful and disgusting world. I loved being an outside observer of the mess that is Caelum and Estrella's relationship. I couldn't relate to Estrella. She's weak though well-rounded. I still felt the emotional impact of each chapter through her eyes. It was a healthy mix of existential horror and love (... or lust? I can't tell with her).

Now to the point of this post... Caelum is a witty, crass (anti)hero typical to the genre. Without spoilers, I could tell what his 'deal' was from the very first page he appeared. The predictable nature of the narrative enhanced my enjoyment in this case. Each new detail putting the picture of what exact kind of fucked-up this guy is. Woods' has an aptitude for writing relationships built on rotten wood. Estrella is screwed up, and she's drawn to Caelum's evil and power in service of her own weakness. What I disliked for the majority of the book is that Caelum—while clearly not who he says he is—is posed as the 'good guy.' Or at the least, better than all the other pig-headed men.

This is the part where I disagree with the narrative. Caelum is just as bad as all the other men. He makes the same vile remarks, enjoys violence, and has the emotional intelligence of a grapefruit. The difference between him and the others is that FMC is into it. The truth is simple: jealous and possessive men kill women. Period. He's just as bad as anyone else. It's easy to get twisted into the world of someone like that, especially for a weak woman like Estrella. I've been there too, which is partly why I enjoyed the story. I hope that I've grown up enough to tell someone like that to hit the road. Hopefully I'm never in the vulnerable position that Estrella is in the story again.

My favorite part of the book is the end. With as few spoilers as possible, Caelum unmasks himself as worse than Estrella could have imagined. He took advantage of her in every way possible, betraying her on every level. I hope she kills him in the next book. That's exactly how I felt with Woods' other series, but the FMC in the Coven is stronger than Estrella. For the first book before MMC's power spike, they were at about equal power levels making the dynamic somehow less toxic despite Grey being objectively more depraved than Caelum. I just love the tension of characters falling in love with people they know aren't good for them. One of these days, I want to see a femc escape, though.

Hopefully I wasn't too harsh on this book as I had a lot of fun reading it. I'm definitely going to pick up the next one to see what happens next!