Alankria - February 2nd, 2008

I'm feeling somewhat disappointed with Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost. This is the page count so far:

Pp 3 - 25: plot (including, however, 9 pages of storytelling - these have been the most interesting parts so far)
Pp 26 - 113: flashback to the main character's Traumatic Childhood
Pp 114 - 150: flashback to another major character's Traumatic Childhood

This book is 255 pages long. I think the plot is going to resume on page 175. That means the plot covers only 103/255 pages, which is roughly 40%.

I think we have a problem here.

Actually the main problem is with the content of the main character's Traumatic Childhood. Let's see. Well, we know from the 23 pages of plot that she is god-chosen and highly skilled at telling stories with the aid of shadow-puppets. (Perhaps I should have been warned off by the part where the god says "And now for the most important thing I will tell you--" *turns permanently back to stone*) Her childhood, however? Oh boy.

( Cut for length of rant. )

What this illustrates is the difficulty of making a character suffer and struggle in such a way that the reader is rooting for him/her to get through it. It's not easy. I think a big problem I had with Leodora's childhood is that I've read it all before. A special girl who is victimised because she is a woman and a little bit abnormal in the locals' eyes. Frost does nothing to make her unique and interesting. She's as cardboard as her uncle. Maybe if she had been an interesting character, and if her uncle had been three-dimensional, and if she had been a little less obviously special, I wouldn't have been bothered by it. It's the combination of failures, I think, that made me loathe her flashback so much. (Also, you know, the complete pointlessness of it. I'd have much preferred it if those pages had contained plot.)

Tags: book octopus, ranting