These Rebel Waves + musings on writing
Sep. 5th, 2018 11:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkI read These Rebel Waves by Sara Raasch this weekend. Having disliked her previous book, Snow Like Ashes, and having seen mixed reviews for TRW, I was prepared to dislike it, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. This is probably the first fantasy book I've read that I've enjoyed in...maybe a year?
I didn't find the infodumping to be intrusive or slowing the pace down. An overly-explanatory style doesn't always work, but it worked for me in TRW because of the dense history of the world, and it was fine. At first, I was uncomfortable with Grace Loray as a close analogue to the United States, but I was really glad when the author actually provided more complexity later on, showing that Grace Loray wasn't a utopia, either.
I also find it surprising that people have called this book "boring" or "dry." I will quit reading books within literally a few pages if I think the writing style is boring, but this book captivated me with a killer first line and didn't let up (although there were admittedly some questionable word choices sprinkled in). I did skim some of Lu's passages because hers seemed the slowest, but that was about it.
Each of the three main characters was fairly complex and multifaceted. Lu was my least favorite, if only because she was kind of the predictable Strong Female Character, but she was still well-drawn, and I appreciated that the author challenged Lu's naïveté about Grace Loray. The portrayal of various kinds of PTSD for the three leads felt realistic and was a touch of depth that I'd given up on expecting from YA.
The way Ben was written, as a queer (gay?) character, bothered me a lot in the beginning because he seemed so sexualized compared to the straight characters. (When the author cited C.S. Pacat as an inspiration, my reaction was less surprised.) But he got a lot better later on. Lu and Vex's relationship bored me because it felt like a very typical, very obvious M/F enemies-to-lovers dynamic. However, I am ALL FOR what looks like it's going to be a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers relationship between Ben and [SPOILER REDACTED] in the next few books.
Ultimately, though, this book inspired me to try my hand at writing fantasy again, and for that reason I feel more favorably toward it than simply viewing it as the sum of its parts. It captured some of the magic I remember from reading fantasy as a kid and that I lost in YA fantasy of recent years; namely, deep, complex characters and a well-thought out world that feels like it actually lives and breathes, not that it's just a cardboard set.
*
I've been reflecting a lot on writing and what I should write next.
In recent years, it's been something of a battle between my desperate desire to write something "mainstream," something that can get picked up by a traditional publisher, versus what my brain actually wants to write.
I think I could push myself to write a "mainstream" YA novel. Being a relatively experienced writer by now (not just in terms of fiction writing, but also because I've had a lot of practice writing for my day job), I think I could do it and have it turn out to be okay enough to query. In other words, I could treat writing as a job.
The deep reflection I've done after my first book was published has led me to some of the conclusions I've feared: That writing a book that is 100% what I want is apparently unpopular in this market. I thought a queer romance with assassins and mysteries and corporate corruption would be interesting to people...but I guess it isn't, since I've been having a ton of trouble with marketing and complaints that the book doesn't fit neatly enough into one genre. So it makes me think that maybe I shouldn't write a book based solely on what I like, if I ever want to turn writing into a full-time career.
But writing is such a hard, lonely endeavor that if you don't have the strongest love and passion for your work to sustain you...what else can?
I like speculative fiction. I like a touch of mystery. I like exploring how people cope with a damaging past. I like angsty but also tender interpersonal relationships. I like sarcastic nerd protagonists. I like exploring the use of narrative to reveal and hide information. I like healing narratives.
I can't change what I like.
Embracing that is hard when I can't be certain that it will lead to success. But maybe it's the only way forward.
I didn't find the infodumping to be intrusive or slowing the pace down. An overly-explanatory style doesn't always work, but it worked for me in TRW because of the dense history of the world, and it was fine. At first, I was uncomfortable with Grace Loray as a close analogue to the United States, but I was really glad when the author actually provided more complexity later on, showing that Grace Loray wasn't a utopia, either.
I also find it surprising that people have called this book "boring" or "dry." I will quit reading books within literally a few pages if I think the writing style is boring, but this book captivated me with a killer first line and didn't let up (although there were admittedly some questionable word choices sprinkled in). I did skim some of Lu's passages because hers seemed the slowest, but that was about it.
Each of the three main characters was fairly complex and multifaceted. Lu was my least favorite, if only because she was kind of the predictable Strong Female Character, but she was still well-drawn, and I appreciated that the author challenged Lu's naïveté about Grace Loray. The portrayal of various kinds of PTSD for the three leads felt realistic and was a touch of depth that I'd given up on expecting from YA.
The way Ben was written, as a queer (gay?) character, bothered me a lot in the beginning because he seemed so sexualized compared to the straight characters. (When the author cited C.S. Pacat as an inspiration, my reaction was less surprised.) But he got a lot better later on. Lu and Vex's relationship bored me because it felt like a very typical, very obvious M/F enemies-to-lovers dynamic. However, I am ALL FOR what looks like it's going to be a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers relationship between Ben and [SPOILER REDACTED] in the next few books.
Ultimately, though, this book inspired me to try my hand at writing fantasy again, and for that reason I feel more favorably toward it than simply viewing it as the sum of its parts. It captured some of the magic I remember from reading fantasy as a kid and that I lost in YA fantasy of recent years; namely, deep, complex characters and a well-thought out world that feels like it actually lives and breathes, not that it's just a cardboard set.
*
I've been reflecting a lot on writing and what I should write next.
In recent years, it's been something of a battle between my desperate desire to write something "mainstream," something that can get picked up by a traditional publisher, versus what my brain actually wants to write.
I think I could push myself to write a "mainstream" YA novel. Being a relatively experienced writer by now (not just in terms of fiction writing, but also because I've had a lot of practice writing for my day job), I think I could do it and have it turn out to be okay enough to query. In other words, I could treat writing as a job.
The deep reflection I've done after my first book was published has led me to some of the conclusions I've feared: That writing a book that is 100% what I want is apparently unpopular in this market. I thought a queer romance with assassins and mysteries and corporate corruption would be interesting to people...but I guess it isn't, since I've been having a ton of trouble with marketing and complaints that the book doesn't fit neatly enough into one genre. So it makes me think that maybe I shouldn't write a book based solely on what I like, if I ever want to turn writing into a full-time career.
But writing is such a hard, lonely endeavor that if you don't have the strongest love and passion for your work to sustain you...what else can?
I like speculative fiction. I like a touch of mystery. I like exploring how people cope with a damaging past. I like angsty but also tender interpersonal relationships. I like sarcastic nerd protagonists. I like exploring the use of narrative to reveal and hide information. I like healing narratives.
I can't change what I like.
Embracing that is hard when I can't be certain that it will lead to success. But maybe it's the only way forward.
