So, those of you who pay attention to the name of the author and the name of the reviewer probably noticed that we have the same last name. Yes, the author, Lauren Patzer, is my dad. And yes, I am incredibly proud of him for writing a book (and all the other stuff he’s up to). However, that does not mean I’m going to be super complimentary about the book… I honestly didn’t like it and there’s no sense in lying about that. I have my reasons, which the following review will outline. I will also be up front about the fact that most of my issues are structural. I don’t normally talk about structure in my reviews because it’s not usually an issue. For Granny Bael, it really was.
I honestly felt a lack of immersion. There’s little description of setting other than what comes out of character’s mouths… and that’s not much aside from “Tugville sucks.” Specific settings just don’t feel like there’s much life in them. There’s a reliance on character dialogue over narration. Unless it’s a random flashback… but that’s a whole other thing. There's also a lack of atmosphere. Now, I will say, part of this is the physical book itself -- the paper is just so very, very white as compared to what I'm used to reading. However, I never felt like there was a sense of foreboding or urgency or any real sense of THIS IS A PLACE... if that makes sense. Even Granny's big murder spree was kind of like "ah, yes, a body-count of randos who obviously have no idea what I'm talking about is in order." I'm not even sure of the scale of that murder spree until much later and even then it's just... town full of people we don't care about is now wiped out and I really don't feel it at all.
The point of view shifts are jumpy as all get out. Some are almost like it’d supposed to be camera shots, but they don’t really land well. I had to reread a couple times to make sure that’s what was going on. Also, there’s not a lot of clear delineation between the jumps. Just suddenly you’re reading from another character’s perspective. On a similar note, I had the same problem with the flashbacks. There is no obvious differentiation between the past and the present.
There is a severe lack of focus as far as characters go. Are we supposed to be invested in the kids or the adults? I ended up invested in neither. The way the characters are introduced and explained kind of brings to mind a TV show in the way things the focus jumps between groups of people, but it really doesn’t help the narrative. There are just too many of them. American Elsewhere handled switching if POVs a lot better. Monstrous Beauty handled the concurrent stories in different timelines a lot better. I’m sure there are more examples, those are just my most recent reads so… closer to the forefront of my mind. One thing both books had in common: Limited POVs. Granny Bael does not have that.
Character motivations in certain spots is like whiplash. Car blows up, I gotta go take down my father RIGHT NOW. Police are dealing with my foster family, gotta go deal with Granny Bael RIGHT NOW. I’m sorry, what? You were leaving town but now that the bus is dead, we suddenly have to go back. Yup, all these decisions make perfect sense. And these three are just the ones I’ve remembered. I definitely think this is a failing on the POV issue. If we were following one character through the events, these decisions might have made sense because we'd be in that character's head getting to see what was going on that led to the decision. There is some attempt at this but it's not nearly enough, in my opinion.
Overall, I will say the writing wasn't bad. It wasn't the best I've ever read, but it wasn't so bad that I had to put Granny Bael in my DNF pile. I didn't have to force myself to keep reading. I genuinely wanted to know how the thing would end. I was a little surprised when it kept going after a certain point, and I guess I'm happy with a certain character regaining her agency... and with there being two Final Girls.
Yeah… I wasn’t a fan of Granny Bael. The character or the book. I finished it mainly because I wanted to see what would happen… which I’m also mostly “meh” about. The Epilogue seems to be setting up a sequel which I won't be reading. I don’t actually know as I have discussed none of this with the author, not even the opinions you just read… but yeah, anyway. I would have loved to recommend Granny Bael, but I really just can't bring myself to do it.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers because I really want to talk about the antagonists.
Antagonist number one: the Mcphersons. They’re mostly a blip, but also super gross. Apparently murder and cannibalism are just fine with them, which is gross and lamp-shaded. Doesn’t make it better. Not even sure their arrest during this makes it better... I'm gonna just head-canon that they were murdered by Granny Bael at some stage during this.
Antagonist number two: Granny Bael. I would really have liked a backstory for her. Probably would have made her a better antagonist. Mostly she’s just menacing because she’ll burn anyone. Her ending with Abigail would probably have felt all the more justified if we got more than just “she was burned at the stake for things she didn’t do.”
Antagonist number three: Elbert Dawkins. Le sigh. Just… gross. And not even any kind of interesting gross. Just plain old gross, powerful, apparently crazy dude. Can’t even be the littlest bit charismatic or interesting. Nope, just gets his way because he has money. I don't even want a backstory for him. He deserves what he ends up with, even if it is kind of Prometheus-y.
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