Isabel Ibañez

Graceless Heart

I don't know why I thought that I'd found "What the River Knows" OK, surprisingly good even - apparently I found it boring. I guess I must have remembered the early stages of reading it. But if I had remembered that, I would have perhaps been less dismayed at how bad this was. Not sure where to even start, to be honest - the book just did not work on any level.

Let's start with - was this meant to be YA or not? Because it read like one, except that it had relatively detailed sex scenes that took up a solid chunk of the novel in the last quarter or so.

The concept of it was not otherwise horrible - just poorly executed, to a degree that almost pissed me off. The novel was trying to do too much with its worldbuilding, so much so that it felt like it was just throwing anything at the reader in service of the romantic plot. It is placed in such a rich and well-documented historic period that is incredibly familiar to Western readers. However, this proves to be a double-edged sword as the plot never truly engages with its politics or setting nor does the narration take any great strides to immerse the reader into this world, which creates major frustrations. Adding the magical element to the story, the worldbuilding falls apart.

It would have been better to do either one or the other but not both at the same time. And it is not that it cannot be done - this felt incredibly reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's "The Familiar"; Katherine Arden's "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" was one of my favourite reads last year. But those novels fully engaged with their respective historic settings where the actions and fate of the characters directly related to them. "Graceless Heart", instead, seems much more interested in its love story which could have happened in any pseudo-European fantasy setting.

The trouble was that the love story, too, left much to be desired. There was no chemistry between these characters other than that the author wanted the trope to happen. This is an 18h audiobook - can you imagine how difficult it is to get through something like this?

And yet! All of the above could have been forgiven if Ravenna had been an interesting character with an intresting arc. She does - I believe the technical term for this is - fuck-all. Trying to spy? Gets caught immediately. Trying to double-spy? Gets caught immediately. Solving her magical task? I think the book forgets about this at all at some point. Being actively involved in the resolution? I think a 

Not saying every character has to be exceptional or strong, physically or mentally. But what happened to resourceful, motivated main characters with the agency to act? Ravenna nearly is this at the start, and then never again. Supposedly, her life is in danger and so are her family; yet not one solution seems to come from her.

More than anything else, this made me feel like this book wanted me to stay emptyheaded. Not even in a malicious way but in a way that wants to gaslight me to believe that this is how the brain of the average person operates - unable to hold a complex thought or solve their own problems, just thinking about a talk, dark and handsome guy.

Of course, there were all the other pitfalls that recently published fiction seems to have created a tendency for - multiple POV's in lieu of figuring out smarter ways to convey other characters' back stories and motivations (you know - writing), scenes that 10-15 years ago would be a bonus chapter on the author's website, flowery high-brow language dispersed between phrases that sound like coming from people with TikTok accounts, etc. - but I do not want to talk about this book any longer.

I don't know why I thought that I'd found "What the River Knows" OK, surprisingly good even - apparently I found it boring. I guess I must have remembered the early stages of reading it. But if I had remembered that, I would have perhaps been less dismayed at how bad this was. Not sure where to even start, to be honest - the book just did not work on any level.

Let's start with - was this meant to be YA or not? Because it read like one, except that it had relatively detailed sex scenes that took up a solid chunk of the novel in the last quarter or so.

The concept of it was not otherwise horrible - just poorly executed, to a degree that almost pissed me off. The novel was trying to do too much with its worldbuilding, so much so that it felt like it was just throwing anything at the reader in service of the romantic plot. It is placed in such a rich and well-documented historic period that is incredibly familiar to Western readers. However, this proves to be a double-edged sword as the plot never truly engages with its politics or setting nor does the narration take any great strides to immerse the reader into this world, which creates major frustrations. Adding the magical element to the story, the worldbuilding falls apart.

It would have been better to do either one or the other but not both at the same time. And it is not that it cannot be done - this felt incredibly reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo's "The Familiar"; Katherine Arden's "The Warm Hands of Ghosts" was one of my favourite reads last year. But those novels fully engaged with their respective historic settings where the actions and fate of the characters directly related to them. "Graceless Heart", instead, seems much more interested in its love story which could have happened in any pseudo-European fantasy setting.

The trouble was that the love story, too, left much to be desired. There was no chemistry between these characters other than that the author wanted the trope to happen. This is an 18h audiobook - can you imagine how difficult it is to get through something like this?

And yet! All of the above could have been forgiven if Ravenna had been an interesting character with an intresting arc. She does - I believe the technical term for this is - fuck-all. Trying to spy? Gets caught immediately. Trying to double-spy? Gets caught immediately. Solving her magical task? I think the book forgets about this at all at some point. Being actively involved in the resolution? I think a deus ex machina would do.

Not saying every character has to be exceptional or strong, physically or mentally. But what happened to resourceful, motivated main characters with the agency to act? Ravenna nearly is this at the start, and then never again. Supposedly, her life is in danger and so are her family; yet not one solution seems to come from her.

More than anything else, this made me feel like this book wanted me to stay emptyheaded. Not even in a malicious way but in a way that wants to gaslight me to believe that this is how the brain of the average person operates - unable to hold a complex thought or solve their own problems, just thinking about a talk, dark and handsome guy.

Of course, there were all the other pitfalls that recently published fiction seems to have created a tendency for - multiple POV's in lieu of figuring out smarter ways to convey other characters' back stories and motivations (you know - writing), scenes that 10-15 years ago would be a bonus chapter on the author's website, flowery high-brow language dispersed between phrases that sound like coming from people with TikTok accounts, etc. - but I do not want to talk about this book any longer.