(I think my Goodreads review is 2/5, but the passing of time has only made me angrier.)
STATUS: Sequel to Hartman's stellar debut, Seraphina; also, the end of the series. NOT a trilogy.
AUTHOR: Rachel Hartman
GENRE: Young Adult, Fantasy, Dragons, Adventure, Court Intrigue, Psychological Thriller
PUBLISHER: Random House
LOVE TRIANGLE: Yes—of a most unorthodox (and unexpected) kind
PAGES: 608 pages
From Publishers Weekly:
"...a worthy and wholly satisfying continuation of Seraphina's tale."From Booklist:
"...the intricate plotting, clever surprises...and lovely prose make this a worthy conclusion for all of Hartman's big-hearted characters."
**DISCLAIMER: I quote the above reviews only because I'm about to vehemently and wholeheartedly disagree. What follows is quite possibly the least detached review I've ever written: it is the passionate reaction of a fan who fell so deeply in love with Seraphina that she eagerly sought out and devoured the sequel, only to be so frustrated in the end, it hurt her heart.**
** spoiler alert ** This was, hands down, one of the most frustrating and disappointing sequels I have ever read.
**Warning: Spoilers Below**
First of all, I have to say, I loved Seraphina. Devoured it. Stayed up ridiculously late reading "just one more chapter." And I love those kinds of books -- they usually inspire an undying loyalty to the author. But in this case...I'm more than a little angry. (Which is not a good thing to be at 3:00 in the morning.)
Where to start?
Perhaps with the pacing. Seraphina took a while to get into -- but then, so did The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. In both cases, it took about 100 pages -- those first 100 seemed to drag on interminably, but then, it was like a switch was flipped and things just took off, racing steadily towards a perfectly timed climax.
In the sequel -- and, I will admit, I had NO idea that this was a two-book series; I honestly thought it was a trilogy and everything that Hartman was setting up seemed to reinforce that -- the pacing was just...off. I anticipated a slow start and thought that things were starting to pick up about a 1/3 of the way through, with the (re-)introduction of Jannoula. That's when things started to get interesting.
But most of the first half of the book was Seraphina journeying places. She went to Ninys and then to SamSam and then to Porphyry and then, eventually, to Lab Four. And all along the way we met brand new characters, had to establish a clear setting (which, ultimately, didn't matter, because we never went back to that country!), and forge new relationships. Not much happened -- or, at least, what did happen fell into a quickly established pattern: Seraphina arrives somewhere new. She meets new people. She searches for ityasaari. She attempts to befriend them only to find out that Jannoula has already gotten to them. EVERYONE falls for Jannoula, leaving Seraphina pretty much alone and miserable for the majority of the book.
Gone is my strong, witty, sensitive heroine. Gone are her relationships with her family, with Orma, with Kiggs, with Selda. Gone is the court intrigue, the suspicious characters, the MUSIC. (The first book dealt SO much with music and now...it's just gone.)
And as long as Seraphina is journeying places, not much happens. Even when things do happen, Seraphina seems to be sidelined for one reason or another.
The novel only seemed to pick up once Seraphina arrives back in Goredd -- perhaps because we're back in familiar territory and we get a chance to see her interacting with all the characters she's established relationships with. But even then...everyone from the first book is conspicuously absent and all the other ityasaari are hooked into Jannoula so, again, Seraphina is alone and miserable. Most of the last 1/4 of the novel is Seraphina trying to find a way to defeat Jannoula and failing because, apparently, Jannoula is, like, the best evil villain EVAR.
Things just...fell apart here. Why is Jannoula so persuasive? Why can she persuade everyone -- humans and ityasaari alike -- but none of the other ityasaari can? She is ALWAYS one-step ahead of Seraphina because she can, quite conveniently, be in everyone's heads at once. How does she manage it? How does she manage to sipher information from everyone? Early on, she can really only manage one person at a time. It just doesn't make sense.
And don't even get me started on Seraphina's mind garden. What was once a really cool, unique concept in the first book just seems to have run away from Hartman. It's inexplicably shrinking this whole book (and I don't think it's a coincidence that Seraphina ultimately abandons it in the end, much like Hartman seems to have done). And all this business with inside-outside houses? It's like wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff; it's more confusing than anything and was incredibly hard to follow.
But Seraphina apparently understood it, even if I didn't, because she has this miraculous epiphany at the end -- literally 95% of the way through the second book - and everything is instantly taken care of in an ending which smacks of deus ex machina. Literally. Seraphina has her miraculous inner realization but, since it's not enough to take care of Jannoula, even with Abdo's help (who has also miraculously reappeared), who intervenes but a larger-than-life monstrous saint. He literally plucks Jannoula off the castle parapets and whisks her away -- to do heaven-knows-what with her; her fate is decidedly unclear.
You know what's NOT unclear though? Two things.
One--the whole big battle between the dragons and the humans and the ityasaari and the neighboring kingdoms? Doesn't happen. This evening, I was talking about the book to my husband, mildly complaining and saying that maybe this book just suffered from middle child syndrome: we'd set up everything here and then get to the good stuff with the climactic battle in the third book. Only...there is no climactic battle. After Jannoula leaves, Queen Glisselda magically restores peace and everything comes up roses. The great, big, belligerent dragons are perfectly content to follow law and order and go back home. WHAT?
Two--Seraphina's fate as a lonely spinster with no one around her in her life. Why? Because all the other ityasaari go home, even Abdo (who decides to return to the temple he once denounced). Okay--they were visitors anyway. Let's focus on the characters we loved in the first book.
Orma? Oh yeah. He DID have his memories excised, despite Jannoula saying that they weren't. He can't remember Seraphina and he may or may not eventually remember her, since he may or may not have made a memory pearl.
That's okay--Seraphina has her other family right? Her dad and stepmother and half-siblings? Nope. Not even mentioned in this book.
But even that's okay, because Seraphina still has her BFF, Selda, and her love, Kiggs. WRONG. And this is where I completely and utterly lost faith in the novel. We have been building the relationship between Kiggs and Seraphina since the first book -- they are completely and utterly compatible, complement each other, and love each other. And once Glisselda finds out, she gives her blessing -- because, apparently, she's in LOVE WITH SERAPHINA TOO. Is she a lesbian? Is she bisexual? Is she just going through a phase? No one knows -- because this is casually thrown in and then never acknowledged again.
Unless you count the fact that Kiggs and Glisselda get married. MARRIED. Despite the fact that they BOTH love Seraphina, they decided to marry each other. And all of this is, again, casually thrown into the end of the novel in ONE SENTENCE. We don't even get a satisfactory answer--they want to honor their grandmother's wishes? (That didn't seem to matter before.) Glisselda couldn't imagine marrying anyone else because she had always thought that she would marry Kiggs? (That's a complete cop-out, even if you take into account that most royal marriages are political alliances.) And Kiggs was basically married to Goredd? No. Just no. He loves Seraphina and this whole marriage-isn't-actually-about-love is an awful, unsatisfactory message to readers who just slogged through 900 pages.
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