Roses and Rot

"Okay, so, I'm quitting this book even though I love the premise and the writing's great.<br/><br/>With me so far? No? Me either.<br/><br/>Book is based on a premise of a prestigious artist's retreat. Two sisters, one a dancer, the other a writer, both make it into the retreat -- first time in its history that a pair of siblings both make it, and from this program often come stars in their chosen fields. So the sisters, they're learning and doing art and doing cool stuff... but there's a seedy underbelly (isn't there always?) to this whole thing, a darker purpose.<br/><br/>I'm right at the halfway point; the tension's high, the foundation for the story's phenomenal... and it's making me so anxious that I'm sick to my stomach.<br/><br/>There's a point somewhere earlier in the book that the protagonist mentions that when you're abused, you look at someone else who's had it so much worse and remind yourself that it could be worse, what you're going through isn't all that bad, etc. And then we got to the holidays, and the protagonist is remembering going through some pretty awful stuff with her narcissistic mother, and ... my childhood wasn't that bad, it could have been so much worse.<br/><br/>So, I'm not going to minimize it, but I'm also going to give myself some grace. This book is giving me anxiety attacks purely because of my own history. It is a good book with a good premise and interesting (and dark) as heck, but soooo not for me."

"Meh… I had issue with the fact that two grown women are still so traumatized by childhood psychological (and some physical) abuse to the point of severe physiological symptoms by their mother’s words and actions. Especially when one of them has been independent for some time and could easily just block her mother’s communication attempts. I also don’t understand why the sisters are trying to fix their relationship and it took until near the end of the book for them to discuss the old “I thought YOU were mad” “no, I thought YOU were mad at ME” “you mean our evil mother threw away all of my letters?! Gasp! Say it isn’t so! Considering all of the abuse she put us through, I am still so very surprised”. I had a lot of eye roll moments. Oh, and the end stage that they’re so afraid and prepare for, ends up being conveniently resolved and loose ends tied up in the last three chapters. There are partial story lines that don’t add value and kind of keep you guessing who’s story is actually true, which were not really resolved completely. And their mother ends up in the hospital and they just walk away… like… that wasn’t possible before? Oh and the fae king? He’s gonna abdicate and conveniently he’ll just turn into a human with enough time in this world. Wow. Not even taking the attempt at a sequel there (thankfully).<br/><br/>I finished it begrudgingly. It’s a mediocre book by a mediocre author who is narrating as a highly gifted writer. It’s always funny when you read something that’s supposed to be breathtakingly brilliant to the audience in the novel but… isn’t. So I found myself frequently wondering on what planet those fairy tales would be considered brilliant work. It could have been written in a series of flashbacks as opposed to distractingly poor prose that is, in the book, so brilliant."