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mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker · 6 years ago

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Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows Vol 2 #10-12 Thoughts

Previous thoughts here.

Even though issue #10 is a done-in-one and issues #11-12 two-parter, to all intents and purposes the three issues form a three parter, issue #10 acting as a kind of precursor to the latter issues.

First things first the elephant in the room to address is Ryan Stegman as the writer and by extension the artists filling in for him.

Whilst neither Stockman nor Level are the measure of Stegman, they both do respectable jobs, with Level’s art in particular being a better compliment to Stegman’s. This isn’t to say Stockman’s art is ill suited because like in issue #5 his style excels at expressive almost Rugrat looking child characters and issue #10 features one such character as the lead.

Stegman for his part, whilst he may be working off of ideas leftover from Conway, does a surprisingly good job. There are some problems with issue #11-12 I will talk about later, but issue #10 is great and over all his dialogue, pacing and handling of the characters is solid, shockingly solid for someone who I do not believe has much (if any) writing experience. This applies to his writing contributions to issues #8-9 too.

His work is not as layered or as nuanced as Conway’s but it’s still good, still cuts to the heart of this series (family) and still delivers on the emotion when needed.*

This arc as a whole provides a decent enough wrap up to the over all subplots across the series and the 12 issues as a whole did a good job in the pacing department.

I despise decompressed storytelling but RYV up to this point has handled it really well. The first 4 issues were the guiltiest in this department but their style of pacing was justified. Beyond that it’s been done-in-one stories or else two parters or in this case a pseudo three parter. This keeps things nice and breezy and makes you feel like things have actually advanced quite a bit since issue #1.

Of the three issues though it must be said issue #10 was the strongest and most interesting.

I said back when I covered issues #8-9 how I appreciated that each story across the series was mixing up which characters get the focus (last arc being Peter and more noticeably MJ) and that continues here. Whilst technically Normie is the lead character of issue #10 it’s Peter and Annie who’re the Parkers getting all the focus here, and it’s adorable.

This is something we haven’t seen before outside of that back up from issue #1 and it’s nice to call back to that (along with the fact that Peter pumps Annie full of sugar when MJ’s away). The clever part of the story is how the focus upon Peter and Annie is complimented by the Lizard and Billy’s opposition to them. This recalls Mr. And Mrs. Spider-Man #1 from 2009 but also emphasises the key point of this story: Normie’s loneliness.

The whole issue is an exploration of Normie, his attempts to live up to his father and grandfather’s toxic legacy and how that quest and their absence in his life has left him alone and unprepared. He thinks he’s grown up to cope with the challenges facing him but he is still ultimately a sad little boy who misses his family.**

In particular in this issue and the next two Normie’s problems are highlighted when contrasted to Annie. Annie expresses gratitude for having a loving family like Normie lacks, calls out Normie on the depressing state of his young life and behaves (comparatively) more like a real child of around their age.

But it is also Peter’s treatment of him with small sympathy that highlight’s Normie’s childishness and pitiful emotional state. We see his anger is born less from a desire to honour his legacy, or even plain old revenge but more a childish anger about just not having his parents (specifically his Dad around). And Stegman and Stockman just sell it!

You see the shades of Norman and Harry’s vendetta cropping up in him but just from a different angle. This permeates through the arc actually and both directly and more subtly recalls DeMatteis and Buscema’s Harry Osborn arc from the early 1990s.

It’s not just fun or coincidental references either it taps into the idea of how family legacies can be toxic which is contrasted nicely with the family dynamic of the Parkers.

This comparison and contrast between the Osborns and Parkers deepens in issues #11-12.

The most obvious example to bust out is the one already drawn (but done better here imo) from the Venom arc. That of MJ and Liz Allan both being mothers who will go to extremes for the sake of their children, with their confrontation in this arc being pretty juicy.

But we also see it in Peter’s protectiveness over Annie too. In another potentially genius call back to Spec #190 by DeMatteis and Buscema (and possibly RYV vol 1 #2), a rage fuelled Peter beats the crap out of the Rhino due to him threatening his family. This is both a realistic reaction for a parent to have and also very true to Peter’s established character in both RYV and the 616 universe, and something not displayed much in RYV vol 2.

In a way this arc marries (if you pardon the pun) the kind of extremes Peter was shown to have regarding Annie from vol 1 with those MJ had been given in vol 2 as the story shows both becoming aggressive in pursuit of rescuing Annie.

In having Peter hunt down Annie, Annie confront and attempt to redeem Normie and MJ get to the bottom of her Venom situation with Liz, issue #11 does a great job of closing out the over arching story of volume 2 by having the Parkers all equally be the focus. Issue #12 kinda does the same thing by involving the X-Men and similarly the use of a Regent power draining mech helps tie-back into the original RYV.

Issue #12 in regards to balancing out the family has a few more mixed results, but it depends what you want out the conclusion.

The story again provides us with a nice change up in the dynamics as it’s more Annie and Normie’s story than it is Peter and/or MJ’s. So it’s something different, but for a wrap up arc maybe having the Parkers fight all together was more thematically appropriate.

It certainly isn’t poorly done though. Annie comes into her own, Normie is believably redeemed and the story has a great message about how words can sometimes win out over fists.

There is also a great twist (kind of) in having the background character Ms. January wind up as the main villain, allowing for Normie to be redeemed and allowing him to break the Osborn Curse of which the arc is named after. It also ties back into the theme of family as Ms. January’s actions stem from a kind of motherly instinct towards Normie.

The action is pretty decent as are the stakes.

Giant robot = Bad.

Giant robot vs a powerless Spider-Man and Mary Jane = Very bad

Giant robot vs a powerless Spidey and MJ whilst it also has the powers of four of the X-Men = How ARE they gonna get out of this one?

Speaking of the X-Men, the arc handles them in a way I appreciated. Not only does their presence recall RYV #1 but it also ups the stakes whilst not allowing them to take away any of the spotlight from the Parkers.

Specifically Annie who comes into her own as I said and this then leads into a pretty organic transition into the new 8 years later status quo.

So...all great right?

Well...not exactly.

Let’s put aside how the Goblin mech having the X-Men’s powers was somewhat underutilized. Let’s put aside even how as I said it maybe should’ve been better if all three of the Parkers were involved in bringing down the threat.

Let’s instead talk about the three big elephants in the room.

Elephant #1: Venom

When I finished RYV #9 even though MJ was still wearing the symbiote I presumed that she’d beaten it and was going to get rid of it. Seemed like the obvious and natural ending to that arc right?

Right...except that didn’t happen.

I was truly surprised when I saw MJ in the suit during this arc. It got me thinking her absence and trip to the hospital in the prior issue made more sense.

But narratively it served little purpose here. It gave MJ something to do in issue #11 I guess but equally MJ could’ve gone to confront Liz without the symbiote simply to learn why Liz had done what she did.***

So why did MJ keep the costume? My suspicion it was purely to justify her still wearing it in Venom-Verse and thus milk MJ in the suit more given how the marketing department (or whoever) were the people who pushed that onto the series in the first place.

It wouldn’t be much of a problem if not for the fact that it’s disposed of so cheaply and easily in issue #12 and you have to No. Prize why she couldn’t have gotten rid of the suit earlier.

The Fantastic Four were mentioned in issue #10 and since they were the guys who got Peter and the symbiote separated in the first place you’d think this wouldn’t be a problem. The ONLY explanation I can dream up (and this isn’t present in the story mind you) is that the symbiote was altered somehow by Liz to be resistant to fire and sonics, hence why in issue #9 MJ punches a flamethrower or something with no problem.

Elephant #2: Ms. January.

Conceptually a background character turning out to be a villain in a twist is great. Problem is we never learn why.

At first it seems like Ms. January just cares for Normie that much but not only is this an offhand motivation in the first place but more poignantly Harry (not Normie) is brought up more than once by Ms. January in issues #11-12.

So it has something to do with him but we never learn what exactly.

She just switches on everyone, goes nuts and it’s because of Harry.

????????

I think this is an example of Stegman being an artist more than a writer tripping up, it may well have been Conway’s original plan for Ms. January to be the final boss but he hadn’t fleshed that part out and Stegman just plugged it in.

Elephant #3: This arc takes waaaaaay too much stuff from Spider-Girl.

I love Spider-Girl. She is my second favourite Spider character behind Peter himself. Her series was a triumph and an underrated all time classic.

And one of the key parts of that series was Normie Osborn being a sad lonely young man self-destructively trying to live up to his father and grandfather’s legacy as a Goblin, and avenge what he perceived as his father’s death due to Spider-Man. The subplot wraps up in Spider-Girl #27, my favourite issue of the series, in which Spider-Man’s daughter is captured and at the mercy of Normie, calls him out on his BS, expresses sympathy for him and with kindness talks him into changing his ways, finding redemption and becoming an ally to her.

Sound familiar?

Here is the thing, putting aside how Spider-Girl did it better, there is nothing wrong with repeating the same ideas to an extent.

But it is the fact that they repeat the redemption part and the manner in which it happens that is the problem. No Normie isn’t borderline suicidal in this story but he’s still on a path to destruction and still has Annie at his mercy and she still is the one who redeems him.

It would’ve been a better take had it actually been Peter who talked him down.

The comparisons to Spider-Girl are not helped by many fans feeling RYV and Annie supplanted Mayday in certain respects and more poignantly that from here on in the series would be borrowing waaaaaaay too many elements from Spider-Girl, starting with the epilogue to this issue where Annie becomes a teenager.

So...in a lot of ways this arc had the weakest writing of RYV up to this point, but I think it’s strengths in spite of it’s weaknesses combine to render it stronger than the X-Men arc and thus only the second weakest arc of the series thus far. In particular I have to commend them for making so much of it work as they did in spite of Conway leaving.

I doubt I’d be complaining this much had I read these at the time of their release though simply because back then these would’ve still been infinitely better Spider-Man than Slott’s clownshow.

Were I to give issue #10 it’s own grade it’d be an A-.

But the 3 issues collectively get a B-.

Good, worth a read but very flawed nevertheless.

*Which is very damning when you consider Stegman, an artist, was a better Spider-Man writer in 3-5 issues than Slott was across 10 years.

**Also the story explains why Normie seems more intelligent than he should be, it’s because of the Goblin formula which helps resolve what otherwise would’ve been something of a contrivence.

***Speaking of which how did Liz know Spinneret would’ve taken her bait about the symbiote? Not saying there is NO explanation but we don’t really get one ever.

P.S. How the Hell can this random orb contain Peter’s powers? His powers stem from being altered on a genetic level!

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nothingneverforever · 5 years ago

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Never Have I Ever (2020)

Hey, I think this is my first TV series ‘review’ ever! Well I did do a basically empty post on Unforgotten (season 1) back in Feb 2017, promising to write properly my full feelings down, but that was something I never got back to. It’s still one of the best TV shows ever in the whole world, so hopefully I have time for it some day.

Anyway, meanwhile Never Have I Ever (NHIE), is… absolutely not good. At all….

I’d decided to watch it after seeing Mindy Kaling’s Late Night (2019), which was surprisingly enjoyable and moving even, and not just because Emma Thomson is one of my favourite celebrities in this world. It was a fun movie, and it felt different (from other similar films) ! I say it was surprising because I guess due to misogyny or something, I never thought I had reason to take Mindy Kaling seriously. And I am so sorry for it! There were parts of the script (Late Night) that worked out so, so well.

Back to NHIE! First, here are some synopses I’ve found online of the series:

- The complicated life of a modern-day first generation Indian American teenage girl, inspired by Mindy Kaling's own childhood.

- After a traumatic year, an Indian-American teen just wants to spruce up her social status - but friends, family and feelings won't make it easy on her

- Episode 1: After recent trauma, Devi starts her first day as a high school sophomore determined to shake off old labels and finally become cool.

So I guess my first complaint about NHIE is a bone I could pick with just about any American production from the last, idk, 8 years. You know how when (for whatever reason) every single character is ‘awkward’ or ‘weird’ or sooo idiosyncratic in general, they just end up all being… almost exactly the same? Where all the over-used tropes, every character’s too-loud too-colourful unique defining traits just end up reading the same way, to me at least.

Need all characters be so strong, really? Strong as in, overly sapid, full-bodied, clearly defined, distinct in a way that actually isn’t unique at all… I mean I’m not asking for more Jack Maliks (from Yesterday, as reviewed here by me) cos fuk dat guy omfg hate him and his dull ass lol but … do you know what I mean? When every character has traits that are so instantly recognizable, so clear to the plain eye without need for any nuanced observation or interpretation that you can almost like .. see the literal line of text in Courier font for the character description in the screenplay flashing before your eyes? Like of course as viewers we do want to feel like we have some grasp of the characters we’re investing in and relating to but I think if traits and personalities and mannerisms are so simplistic (even if they are diverse) that the characters themselves can ve perfectly summed up in a nutshell then that’s not a good thing at all.. I don’t know, it just seems a very American thing that I’m tired of, where there’s just a complete dearth of authenticity and complexity. Because no one in real life is ever sooooo distinctly themselves 100% of the time you know? Sure, I haven’t seen something specifically catered for teens in a while so maybe it’s just genre-specific thing but I do think there was so much more room for more realistic characters here.

Okay but still, 90% of all comments I have trawled through (facebook, Instagram, youtube) seem to be from American teens, talking about how relatable the show is so I guess high school teachers really be out there acting like caricatures of their TV trope selves and friends are all awkward af among each other and quirky at home and quirky on the streets walking home and quirky in the corridors of their school and exaggerate every reaction in every ordinary situation. But here’s the thing, I don’t think people are actually this way. I think many of them pretend that they are, act like they are. I think here lies the danger: where the more media we have portraying this kind of intensely saturated characters and personalities, the more young people will think that to be ‘themselves’, they have to raise the decibels of each and every trait of their own… I dunno if you understand me? I think it’s an insidious feedback cycle not dissimilar to the manic pixie dreamgirl effect, not in how women’s quirkiness serves to bring out dormant sides of men but just in how people (especially girls because due to society-enforced insecurities are more susceptible to taking influence from popular role models) have to BE SO *INSERT ANY ADJECTIVE HERE* … I don’t know… it’s just inauthentic and tiring. So NHIE is okay, as long as it is makes clear that it’s caricaturizing different examples of how some people may act in different circumstances… but it doesn’t do this. Aiyah I know I’m making a huge deal out of what some people will obviously just take as entertainment and gags for laughs etc but… it’s annoying to me…

Okay

So I’m not sure if you got this from the synopses I’d copied above, so, again: NHIE revolves around a nice girl, Devi (15), who lost her father (heart attack, in the middle of the school hall where he was watching Devi perform at her school orchestra concert) last year and is now starting a new year of school, coping with the incident by stifling every single traumatic memory. Also there are some random throwaways here and there about her having literally become physically disabled for 3 months after her father’s death where Devi lost the ability to use her legs (psychosomatic reaction to her loss) but it’s only ever joked at in insignificant ways so I guess… we shall never know that side of her grief? But all this (grieving over dead father, impersonal relationship with stern mother etc) is mere backdrop, joining other backdrop themes like being a shitty friend from start to end in unbelievably shitty ways etc – the main ‘plot’ instead is made up of Devi’s desperate quest to have sex with Paxton, a 16 year-old ‘hottie’ from school who she likes, erm, because, hot.

Yea that’s it…… that’s the critique. She’s a 15 year old girl whose everyday actions (for the most part) are calculated to lead up to her deflowering by her crush. Not to be a prude but… is this an okay storyline? Like are 15 year-olds legally allowed to have sex? Lol… Am I under any misconception about what teens all over the world get up to? No. Do I think that the law plays any useful role in preventing young girls and boys from sexualizing themselves and wasting their time on sexual pursuits when they can and should be developing literally any other interest and skill? No. Am I still unhappy that this was the main motivating factor for Devi to get up and out of her home each day, unhappy that for this reason (her goal of sleeping with Paxton), unhappy that because of this she morphed into the worst, most unreliable and unrelatable friend ever to her besties who needed her badly??? Yes!

Look, I’ve covered relevant topics in my 4 years of social work education to understand Devi’s actions as unhealthy, maladaptive coping behaviours – we see Devi exhibit behaviours / thoughts etc evocative of basically all 4 stages of the Kubler-Ross grief cycle, besides the final stage of acceptance: denial, anger, bargaining, depression. If we look at Virginia Satir’s coping stances instead, (different types of behaviours people exhibit when under stress), Devi again displays all 4 stances: super reasonable (i.e. over-rationalizing something so as to avoid confronting/acknowledging the emotional truth), irrelevant (distracting, changing the topic, inappropriate jokes), placating (self-explanatory) and blaming (again, obvious). So basically, Devi does, says and feels anything and everything besides maturely coping with the loss of her father. Is this realistic? Yes! Does everyone work within their own timelines before finally coming to that final Kubler-Ross stage of acceptance? Absolutely! And I am not at all rushing Devi to act ‘normal’ or to display healthier coping mechanisms. I just wish the grief was handled so so so much better by Mindy Kaling and whoever else was involved in developing this story - this story that is honestly full of promise. In other words, how Devi fails to handle her grief could have been written so much better, so much deeper instead of her failings itself being the central form of entertainment for much of the 10 episodes.

Anyway, also, besides it being morally not okay for a 15 year-old’s thirst for sex to be an accepted plot point (accepted on- and off-screen I mean), the actors playing Devi and Paxton are 10 years apart in age. Devi (reminder: age 15 on-screen) is played by a lovely actress who is currently 18, and Paxton is played by someone who is currently 29. So like….. she would likely have been 17 at the time of shooting? That’s just not okay and I don’t think I need say more lol. Shit like this, miscasting your key heartthrob, is just so… cheapo and so late 90s/early 2000s you know where the actors are so so clearly adults playing high schoolers, it’s just… cheapo af and absolutely inexcusable now.

Okay, everything up to this point in my ‘review’ has just been small here-and-there thoughts I had while watching it, and I’ve dedicated fluffy paragraph after paragraph on them so as to delay speaking about my main issue with the series: how the central trauma is dealt with... insomuch as it isn’t, at all.

And I’m not just saying this as someone who’s fresh off having just re-watched A Single Man, because they are obviously intended as very different works and intentionally made of (made with?) very different calibers but there are, surely, much much better ways to handle grief than what we are given with NHIE where Devi tries her darnest to have sex with her dreamboat bae. Okay so early in the series (second episode), Devi actually does get with Paxton in his garage after propositioning him (by ambushing him outside school after he finished swim practice or something), but when he takes off her shirt she’s like ok nvm I cant have sex now bye. So yea, it doesn’t happen. But it continues to be her main source of distraction from her grief, so it does remain a central plot point. Anyway the therapist character in NHIE is a joke, full of age-old TV-therapist lines like “So how do you feel about that?” etc, other platitudes and hollow-isms. She does try to tell Devi that it is not in her interest to be putting her sense of self worth on being “bangable” (I do believe this was the exact word used, cant be bothered to find the exact minute in the speicifc episode but yea trust that Devi and her therapist are candid with speaking about her plans for deflowering and Devi is never willing to talk about anything else but), but … I don’t know, Devi’s schtick gets tiresome, not because I��m neuronormative and want to see more normal behavior from the dear girl or because I’m annoyed with how badly she’s handling her grief, but more because of how badly they (writers, producers whoever etc) are handling it.

Like, up till the very end, we see her irrelevant stances or proof of her denial as fodder for lame jokes and utterly cliché dialogue, in what should be a genuine and ‘real’ scene. It’s annoying!! See below for screencaps from slightly over halfway through the FINAL episode of the series - in other words, way, way too late for a joke to be made out of how Devi resorts to the same poor coping mechanisms in distracting from her grief. I’ve screenshotted only parts of the convo, leaving out the parts where this serious convo turns into a joke about Eleanor, that itself pretends to be deep and serious but it isn’t at all...?

Devi’s friends confront her about the most serious thing in the entire series (her needing to go down to her beach to meet her mom to scatter her dad’s ashes, something she hitherto has rejected as she is unable to face this final step in accepting his death but masks with more irrelevant excuses), and she’s still coping poorly by ‘deflecting’, as her friend rightly says. I don’t know about you, but this was not a scene I needed jokes in at all.

But then, like… suddenly…. Immediately after this she starts crying and everything is good for the first time and there is acceptance within her and some semblances of healing of the fractures in her relationship with her mom etc… I dunno, it’s just not cathartic at all, because Devi hasn’t been given enough of a journey at all. The 0 to 100 thing doesn’t work here because it’s not satisfying (for us) or realistic (for Devi) at all.

Re: the grief, I dunno, if we look at another, equally popular Netflix production, The Haunting of Hill House comes to mind. Yes, obviously not at all a meaningful or fair comparison to make but again, if it’s about a family dealing with grief and loss, why can’t we expect that NHIE carry the same gravitas? In Hill House, we see our characters fumble and lash out and ‘pop off’ (a term used in NHIE which I found strangely out of place) at one another, often, but never are manifestations of their grief, never are clear mishandlings of their grief on display for our entertainment in the form of laughs or ‘cringe’ purposes. It’s just...not everything has to be funny you know? Even if it’s a teen show. I think there are ways, subtle ways, expert ways for something to be serious without at all needing to be heavy.

Again, like my gripe with the childish and/or cheap caricatures of human personalities which would be okay if this series was clearly presented as light entertainment to fill gaps in one’s day, not handling the trauma and grief could (perhaps) be overlooked if it didn’t pretend that it would in fact handle it. But everyone’s discussing the show as if it genuinely was an incredible take on dealing with loss and trauma, as if it’s contributed significantly to understandings of how a young, beautiful lovely ‘normal’ schoolgirl can live and learn through extreme trauma… BUT THE SHOW DOESN’T DO THIS LIKE IT LITERALLY DOESN’T AT ALL I FUCKING SWEAR…. Please watch all 10 episodes and show me even just ONE minute where we come full circle from anything, where Devi grows through her pain and where her journey is developed over more than just literally the last 7 minutes of screentime in the very last episode of the entire series. And I’m also seeing soooooo many comments from people who have enjoyed the series mention how fun and lighthearted it was, how comfortable they are to categorize the series as comedy and how great a time they had binge-watching it. But… it’s not funny? Like it’s really not lol… Devi is dealing with a most painful, urgent grief, having lost her father tragically a year before (and having to see him go before her very eyes). Her denial, her various-aforementioned-unhealthy-coping-mechanisms-and-maladaptive-behaviours made for painful watching for me. It shouldn’t be funny for us to see her abandon her friends when they most needed her; it shouldn’t be fun to see her lash out at her mom and dream of Paxton shirtless, these shouldn’t be comedic externalities of her situation at all. Does this mean I want an utterly dour, extremely humourless NHIE instead? Not at all! I just wish scenes / examples of her mishandling her grief were not the same ones that are supposed to make us laugh and think that everything is light and fun. Like, we can have other funny scenes featuring Devi instead you know? Things that aren’t actually incredibly harmful to her psyche.

ANYWAY

Some positives, cos I did enjoy this stupid series lollll and I did cry and I did laugh and I did look forward to watching it every evening while I exercised, okie? :)

There is one honestly genius thing that I like, where the genius lies in its utter randomness. The series (save for one episode which I will not talk about cos I don’t really give a shit about Andy Samberg and whoever his inclusion was pandering to) was narrated by John McEnroe, who, er, apparently is a well-known American tennis player. The only tennis player I know is Andre Agassi because for some reason in 2016 I borrowed from the library and read cover-to-cover his autobiography omg actually why on earth did I even do that lol I must have read somewhere that it was good perhaps? Anyway it is still recognized as one of the most ‘interesting’ or iconic sports autobiographies of all time so. But yea John McEnroe who?? He (John) is mentioned here and there as having been Devi’s late father’s favourite tennis player – which still does nothing to explain how and why he is narrating the whole series, which is great! I do enjoy the no-attempt-made to connect the fact of his narration to anything in the plot. But it’s not done in an annoyingly absurdist way either, you know? It just it what it is. I mean I guess if I’d written the screenplay which was in part autobiographical, I’d too love to have LeBron James or Megan Rapinoe narrating it, just because!

Ultimately, I think we must all acknowledge how fucking epic it is for Mindy Kaling to be where she is today. That Netflix approached her and asked for a story from her heart, drawing from her own life, and gave her the boundary-less freedom to write what she wanted is cool. She may not be the voice I think teens (or any audience really) may most need but they certainly do want this voice – NHIE is so so so loved and appreciate across the board – by adults, kids, diasporic Indian girls, normal non-minority-race girls etc, with everyone calling (begging) for another season, and anyway Mindy Kaling is probably about 1000000x better anyway than others who have been granted the same stage and presence as her before, like, I dunno, Michael fucking Bay or fucking James Cameron so yay her !!! For the sake of us all!

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update, a few hours later:

so since forcing Jade to read my post the second it went up, i have learnt that:

So there goes the one singular uniquely cute thing I did appreciate about NHIE then i guess, seeing as his random feature throughout the series isn’t unique at all... seeing as unexpectedness makes for a predictable part of his record, it is no longer charming to me. lol bye!

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wordcollector · 8 years ago

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January Book Review: Wayfarer

Wayfarer (Passenger #2) By: Alexandra Bracken Release Date: January 3, 2017

*Beware: Spoilers Ahead!*

Official Synopsis:

I’ve been orphaned by my time. The timeline has changed. My future is gone.

Etta Spencer didn’t know she was a traveler until the day she emerged both miles and years from her home. Now, robbed of the powerful object that was her only hope of saving her mother, Etta finds herself stranded once more, cut off from Nicholas—the eighteenth-century privateer she loves—and her natural time.

When Etta inadvertently stumbles into the heart of the Thorns, the renegade travelers who stole the astrolabe from her, she vows to finish what she started and destroy the astrolabe once and for all. Instead, she’s blindsided by a bombshell revelation from their leader, Henry Hemlock: he is her father. Suddenly questioning everything she’s been fighting for, Etta must choose a path—one that could transform her future.

Still devastated by Etta’s disappearance, Nicholas has enlisted the unlikely help of Sophia Ironwood and a cheeky mercenary-for-hire to track her down. But after a deadly mistake derails their search, they discover an ancient power far more frightening than the rival travelers currently locked in a battle for control—a power that threatens to eradicate the timeline as they know it.

From colonial Nassau to New York City, San Francisco to ancient Carthage, imperial Russia to the Vatican catacombs, #1 New York Times bestselling author Alexandra Bracken charts a gorgeously detailed, thrilling course through time in this stunning conclusion to the Passenger series.

My Synopsis:

The day Etta Spencer discovered she was a traveler was the day she was thrown through a tear in time, emerging centuries before and miles away from everything she’d ever known. Now, once again lost in time, she finds herself without the one instrument capable of saving her mother’s life and returning them home. Even worse, she finds herself separated from Nicholas, the eighteenth-century privateer who holds her heart.

When Etta suddenly finds herself surrounded by the Thorns, the band of rebel travelers now in possession of the astrolabe, she’s determined to stick to the plan and get rid of the astrolabe permanently. But even the best laid plans go awry, and Etta’s resolve is tested when she discovers that the leader of the Thorns, Henry Hemlock, is her father. Suddenly, everything Etta knows is called into question, and she’s faced with a decision between doing what’s needed to save the timeline and doing what will allow her to be with the ones she loves.

Having found himself alone of the search for the astrolabe, Nicholas teams up with Sophia Ironwood, former enemy and the one responsible for Etta’s disappearance, to hunt down the powerful object. As new secrets are uncovered and new friends are made, Nicholas’s hunt turns to finding Etta and, more importantly, to staying one step ahead of a powerful new enemy more terrifying than anything he’s faced before, one who threatens to destroy the timeline once and for all.

Etta and Nicholas’s journeys lead them across the globe and through several centuries as they work to save time and find one another. The thrilling conclusion to the Passenger duology delivers danger, action, and romance that will leave you on the edge of your seat until the final page.

My Thoughts:

Time travel books always seem to fall into one of two categories for me: well done or wasted potential. There are endless scenarios and storylines a time travel story can explore, yet more often than not, it seems like I love the concept but not the final outcome.

That’s when I wish I were a time traveler so that I could go back and tell myself not to waste my time on that book.

You’re probably wondering where this complaining is coming from since I gave my latest time travel read, Wayfarer, 4 out of 5 stars on my Goodreads account, so allow me to explain. I complain only to say that the Passenger duology fell into the first category. The time travel in these book promises a lot, and it truly delivers in terms of adventure and emotional impact.

Passenger, the first book in this duo, was the story of Etta Spencer, a young, modern-day violinist who discovered her identity as a traveler, an individual able to locate and move through passages in time and space. This book followed Etta as she was forced into the search for an ancient astrolabe with the ability to create new passages; joining her on her quest was Nicholas Carter, a privateer and bastard of the powerful Ironwood family, who wanted nothing more than to wash his hands of time travel and return to the sea. But of course, things weren’t that simple, and Etta and Nicholas found themselves falling in love as they raced through time, fighting to stay one step ahead of everyone else searching for the astrolabe and trying to decide if they could ever have a future together. Passenger ended on a cliffhanger, with Etta injured and orphaned in time, Nicholas determined to find his love, and the astrolabe in the hands of the enemy. It was a rough spot to leave everyone—characters and readers alike—but what follows made it worth the while.

Wayfarer picks up a few weeks after the ending of Passenger, with Nicholas and his new partner, Sophia, searching for the astrolabe, Rose searching for Etta, and Etta herself held captive by the Thorns as she recovers from her gunshot wound. We are immediately flung into the chaos and danger of this new world, where former enemies must work together, secrets and lies will be uncovered, and the timeline threatens to shift at any moment, and not necessarily for the better.

My favorite thing about Wayfarer had to be the fantastic character development. Etta and Nicholas are both forced to adapt to being apart, and it changes them in very different ways. Etta becomes even more of a spitfire, willing to shoot first and ask questions later as she fights to figure out how to reset the timeline. Nicholas, on the other hand, seems to revert back to internalizing everything. He doesn’t have anyone around that he trusts enough to share his feelings with, so he pushes his emotions down, becoming more sullen and more focused on finding Etta and setting things right. For both Etta and Nicholas, this book was a tough journey emotionally, mentally, and physically, but they had already shown that they were tough enough to handle themselves in any given situation, especially after everything they had gone through in Passenger. Resultingly, it seemed like Wayfarer was the opportunity for others to grow and to let Etta and Nicholas act upon the development they’d already undergone.

What’s more, I think that the different reactions between Etta and Nicholas and their new situations can in part be attributed to the company they finding themselves keeping. Their separation allows for the introduction of a number of new characters as well as the promotion of sorts for Sophia Ironwood to a more primary character.

I was quite excited to meet Julian Ironwood. I had taken Nicholas’s description of his half-brother with a grain of salt as there was a bit of bad blood between the two, but no, Julian was exactly the flighty, flirty coward that Nicholas made him out to be. I have to admit, though, that I really liked Julian— especially his tangents and his ridiculous bragging—and I loved that Etta was forced to team up with him. It says a lot about Etta’s self-restraint that she doesn’t simply steal his journal and dump him somewhere. It also says a lot about her optimism and her faith in Nicholas that she keeps trying to find a spark of goodness in Julian. Surprisingly, it’s Julian himself that eventually finds that spark, and from that point on, although he’s still flighty and flirty, he’s all-in for helping Etta, stopping his grandfather, and fixing the timeline. I liked this changed in Julian, and I was glad to see him become less of a jester-type character and more of a true partner by the end.

Another new character that is dedicated to fixing the timeline from the start is Henry Hemlock, the leader of the Thorns and Etta’s father. I loved the relationship that grew between Etta and Henry. Rose certainly had never acted like a mother to Etta, leaving Alice as her only family growing up. After meeting Henry, I was so sad for Etta that she had never gotten to meet her father. Henry is everything Rose is not: open, friendly, caring, and determined without being ruthless. He wants to take care of his daughter, but he also wants to help her in whatever decisions she chooses to make. And, like Etta, he’s musical; the scene of Henry and Etta playing for the tsar warmed my heart, and it showed just how alike father and daughter were. I also appreciated that Henry knew the reality of sacrifice and the need to save the many at the cost of the few. Henry isn’t perfect, but he is trying to right all the wrongs Cyrus Ironwood has inflicted all across time, even if that means losing the people he loves.

Looking at Julian and Henry, it seems like Etta got perhaps the more frustrating but better end of the bargain in terms of new partners. And by better, I really just mean safer, because at least those two aren’t threatening or actually trying to kill Etta. Nicholas isn’t quite so lucky in that regard, but he does get lucky in terms of ending up with a new set of fierce and fearsome females to work with.

Although Sophia was featured somewhat in Passenger, she was really only present at the beginning, where she was responsible for getting Etta through the passage, and at the end, where she showed up as a surprise villain before being beaten, robbed, and left for dead. She wasn’t a likeable person—she was bossy, threatening, and racist—but she was always unashamedly herself, and it was impossible not to feel for her as yet another person hurt by and forced to do the bidding of Cyrus Ironwood. Now that she’s split with the Ironwood family, Sophia initially seems to have taken a turn for the worse. She deals with her new reality, both as a woman on the run and as a woman missing an eye, by drinking, and her alcohol-fueled temper makes things worse for Nicholas and herself before she really starts to be helpful. But Sophia isn’t the type to stay down for long when revenge is at hand, and soon she’s racing through time alongside Nicholas.

Even if Sophia had no other redeeming qualities, her never-back-down attitude would’ve made me like her. Yes, her mouth consistently gets her in trouble, but she has the fighting skills to keep herself safe. Seriously, I loved seeing Sophia’s ferociousness and skill in her fights, and Nicholas easily owes her his life many times over. At first, she only saves Nicholas because she needs him as a partner, but eventually she’s saving him because she cares about him. Nicholas’s true nature manages to extinguish Sophia’s prejudice against him, and the two become friends. It’s still a rocky relationship, with lots of threats and violence, but that’s really just Sophia’s way of showing she cares. I was glad to get to know Sophia better and to see her out from under Ironwood’s thumb where she could allow herself to be a bit more vulnerable and where she could find the respect she’d always wanted.

Of course, some of that vulnerability and respect is related to the appearance of Li Min. I loved Li Min and her unorthodox introduction to Nicholas and Sophia. It was obvious pretty early on that she was playing multiple parties, but that didn’t make me like her any less. In fact, as Li Min opens up about her past, it becomes clear that even though she’s lying to Nicholas and Sophia about Etta’s whereabouts, she’s doing so to pay back a debt and preserve her honor. She also manages to save Nicholas and Sophia multiple times, so it would be hard to wish she’d leave them alone. I liked the relationship that began to develop between Li Min and Sophia; they brought out the best in one another, and I appreciated that Li Min not only encouraged Sophia to open up about her difficulties in dealing with her disability but also helped teach her how to compensate for her blind spot in a fight. Those little moments move them from friends to something more, and I was glad that they were both willing to open their hearts to each other knowing that even if they both made it out of the final showdown alive, they could still be separated forever when the timeline reset. Both women are willing to hope for the sake of the other, and it’s obvious that this is a dramatic change in each of their characters brought on by the potential of finally having found someone who could love them just for being themselves.

And speaking of being themselves, the final new character that I came to love was the Belladonna. I’ve always liked obscenely powerful characters and even more so when those characters were women, so it was hard not to like the Belladonna even in spite of the fact that she was responsible for Nicholas’s slow death via poison. I loved that the Belladonna owned her position and enjoyed striking terror into the hearts of others. She is clever, manipulative, and patient, and she has a knack for seeing the truth of a person even if they themselves can’t see it. I had an inkling early on that the Belladonna was more than she seemed, and that really explained how she’d become the person she was and also how she’d managed to amass such a collection of historical artifacts. I loved seeing inside the Belladonna’s treasure trove as well as seeing how protective she was of her possessions; although her shop seemed like a terrifying place, it also seemed like it would be fascinating to visit.

The Belladonna is two steps and a few centuries ahead of everyone, and I think it would take a second reading to see all the pieces of her plan and how they fit together. While I wasn’t wild about the threat that precipitated her having said plan—I’ll get to that in a moment—I did appreciate that she planned a chance for Nicholas and Etta to have their happy ending. It showed that while the Belladonna may have seemed like an antagonist, she was playing a long game to save everyone, and for that, she landed on my good side.

The other thing I absolutely loved about Wayfarer was the ending. After the astrolabe is destroyed and everyone is thrown back to and stuck in their original time, it seems like no one will get the happy ending they’ve fought so hard for. Etta and Nicholas ae separated, Rose and Henry are torn from each other and from Etta, Sophia and Li Min lose one another, the Thorns and their families are scattered, and poor Julian is left all alone. For Etta in particular, it’s a shock as she not only returns to the future by herself, she returns to a future that has been significantly altered due to the reversion back to the original timeline. It’s hard to see Etta faced with such utter uncertainty, but then again, it’s Etta. She’s already proven that she’s tough, that she can take a few hits and keep on fighting. And after an initial period of mourning—for Alice, for her parents, for Nicholas—she makes a plan and gets on with her life. She finishes school, gets a job, and eventually begins playing the violin again.

I was glad that Etta returned to one of the things she truly loved, but I liked that she chose to play with an orchestra. Playing as part of a group took some of the pressure off and let Etta enjoy her playing, and it also meant that she didn’t have to be quite so alone, even though she was still forced to hold everyone at arm’s length to keep her past a secret. I knew something big was going to happen at Etta’s debut concert, not just because there weren’t that many pages left, but because it would be a fitting parallel. Everything began for Etta at her first big performance in the altered timeline, so of course everything would begin again at the same point in this timeline.

I was smiling like an idiot as Etta found Rose, then Henry, then finally Nicholas in the audience. It’s such a sweet and encouraging way for them to reveal themselves to Etta, and of course, it gives Nicholas a chance to finally hear Etta play. And play she does, buoyed by the love and joy she feels at seeing her love and her family again. The reunion between Etta and Nicholas was perfect, and I was glad that Nicholas explained everything right away: that the image of the astrolabe had been burned into his hand as he destroyed it (a la Major Toht and the headpiece of the Staff of Ra in Raiders of the Lost Ark), that he’d found Rose and Henry and that together they’d gone to see the Belladonna and get something from Etta’s time, that they were opening all the passages to allow everyone to be with their loved ones, that time travel would be possible once again but that the rules would change to keep something like the war between the families from ever happening again.

It’s not a plan without a risk of failure or without its fair share of challenges, but it has to be better than keeping everyone apart forever and never letting anyone experience the wonders and knowledge that time travel can provide. Of course Etta and Nicholas aren’t going to be forced apart after everything they’ve been through, but I liked that their happy ending was gained alongside that of so many others and via a reasonable and logical means. It’s the ending they deserve, and I was happy to see them happy and ready to explore new times and new places together.

Despite all the things I loved about Wayfarer, there were a few things that kept it from being a perfect read for me. The pacing in particular really bothered me. There was plenty of action in both points of view, but I felt like the characters failed to truly more forward for a good portion of the book. On Etta’s side, she spends a lot of time getting to know Henry and learning the truth about Rose’s actions, and although learning the truth helps explain as well as change motivations, there isn’t a good balance between exposition and acting upon the new information. It isn’t really until the explosion in Russia and Etta’s escape with Julian that things really start moving on their end.

Unfortunately, the pacing for Nicholas and Sophia is even slower. I lost count of how many times Nicholas’s sections ended with him and Sophia in a new time and place but still being chased and collecting new injuries. Yes, I understand that they’re on the run, but it still seems like their escapes take longer than I would’ve expected from two such resourceful and knowledgeable people. Maybe it was just that their new enemies were more powerful, more deadly, and more determined than Cyrus Ironwood and his people who had chased Nicholas and Etta in the first book, or perhaps it was that Nicholas and Sophia had to face more traps and plots to keep them from achieving their goal. Nonetheless, it takes Nicholas’s imminent death to get the group in gear and get them to finally break their cycle of fight-run-hide. It wasn’t quite a deal breaker for me, but it did make the story seem unnecessarily long, and when a book’s already as long as Wayfarer, you don’t really want it to be too much longer.

But now that I’ve mentioned the new threat that chased after Nicholas and Sophia, I have to admit that I didn’t especially care for the Ancient One and his Shadows. Do I like the idea of such an ancient and powerful character threatening our main guys and gals? Yes. Do I like the idea of a group of highly-trained assassins with terrifying weaponry and nothing to lose? Definitely yes. But the whole Ancient One plot felt like it came out of left field. It isn’t that I didn’t like the arrival of another big bad—in truth, a Bigger, Badder—but there was absolutely no indication of anyone else after the astrolabe in Passenger, not even a hint. And to me, the final book doesn’t seem like the best place to introduce, establish, and make a threat out of a brand new group of characters.

Like I said, it’s not that I disliked the Ancient One and his Shadows because they were bad guys. In fact, I liked the threat that they created and that there was a bigger story going on aside from the one Etta and Nicholas were immediately involved in. But the inclusion of the Ancient One almost felt contrived at this point. Wayfarer could’ve had an equally powerful and dramatic outcome if Cyrus Ironwood has remained the main villain, and the Belladonna’s plot could’ve still been successfully enacted. It was nice to get more background about the astrolabe and its true power, but that also could’ve been introduced another way. I guess when it comes down to it, it was the fact that the Ancient One just came out of nowhere that I had a problem with. If he’d been alluded to in Passenger, or if someone had mentioned the Shadows, or if someone had shared that creepy little nursery rhyme earlier, their appearance might’ve been easier to believe. As it was, though, they felt shoe-horned in for the sake of adding more danger and drama, and I thought that was a mistake.

I know a lot of people also had a problem with Etta and Nicholas being separated for the majority of the book, but that really didn’t bother me all that much. Yes, I missed the romance, the banter, and the partnership between them, but being apart allowed each of them to grow and work in ways that they never could have if they’d been together. And Etta and Nicholas never would’ve gotten to know Julian, Sophia, and Li Min so well if they’d all been together, and it would’ve been a real shame to deprive us of the greatness of these characters. So perhaps surprisingly, I thought keeping Etta and Nicholas apart until just before the final showdown was a wise decision.

The last thing I want to mention about both Passenger and Wayfarer is how much I love the times and places the characters explore. They aren’t the typical eras and locations that are used in time travel stories; they’re new (old?) and exciting locales and time periods that allow us readers to learn a little bit more about history and about different cultures both past and present. The descriptions of these travels are vibrantly written, too, which adds another level of authenticity and fascination to each new place. I now have a number of new events and people to research and some new places to add to my bucket list.

Overall, Wayfarer is a strong sequel and a wonderful ending to this duology. I didn’t like it quite as much as I liked Passenger as a whole, but I did love the wonderful and realistic character development, the wide range of new characters, and the perfect ending. Etta and Nicholas are definitely one of my OTPs, and their determination to fight across time to be with one another shows that nothing can stop true love. The places and times that are brought to life provide vivid backdrops and turn another time travel story into an intriguing exploration of the past. Fans of history, family secrets, and star-crossed romances will love the Passenger duology, and I suggest you check them out today. You never know when the timeline might shift and keep you from ever getting the chance to read these wonderful books.

Stray Thoughts and Observations:

I love the ship imprint on the actual cover of the book!

What a brutal opening. No wonder Rose is so messed up.

Etta has gotten to be a right badass. Her knack for finding/creating weaponry on the fly is awesome.

Henry Hemlock is such an awesome name. Points of alliteration.

I love that the Belladonna has Excalibur. A neat little extra.

I would either be a great time traveler or a truly terrible one. I could learn all the history and the languages and the etiquette easily enough, but I think I would fangirl hard if I ever met anyone truly famous and blow my cover.

This reunion between Julian and Sophia is priceless.

Kisses in the heat of battle are my favorite.

Oh Alice, taking care of Etta to the end and beyond.

I definitely need the story of Nicholas, Rose, and Henry going to see the Belladonna and fighting over that keychain.

I would like to see Nicholas and Etta pop up in the background of some future book. They could fit in pretty much anywhere and in any time, so it’s not an unreasonable request. So get on that Bracken, please and thank you.

Favorite Quotes:

Rose finally closed her eyes. She imagined her veins, her ribs, her whole chest hardening like stone to protect the parts of her that hurt so very much. She was too little to fight them now; Rose knew this. But she also knew that one day she wouldn’t be.

Wondering if the reason her mother seemed to rarely speak to her was because her language was color and form, when Etta’s was sound and vibration.

“My mother met that woman and both survived?”

If the first woman sang her words, this one crushed them between her teeth.

There was something else that Hall used to say—that life itself was uncertainty and the only remedy to its madness was to act boldly.

“There is the journey you make through the world—the one that aches and sings. We come together with others to make our way and survive its trials,” she said. “But we are, all of us, also wayfarers on a greater journey, this one without end, each of us searching for the answers to the unspoken questions of our hearts. Take comfort, as I have, in knowing that, while we must travel it alone, this journey rewards goodness and will prove that the things which are denied to us in life will never create a cage for our souls.”

It was simple, but even simple plans were prone to unexpected disasters.

“Why didn’t he go way back—beyond ancient times? Prehistoric. Actually, how far back do the passages go? Could you see, like, the dinosaurs? Cavemen?” Julian leaned back against the rock, pressing a hand against his chest, his expression one of pure astonishment. “My God, Linden-Hemlock-Spencer. I believe you’ve just given me a new purpose in life.” Etta’s brows drew together. “Finding new passages?” “No, hunting for dinosaurs,” he said. “Why did I never think of that—oh, right, the eating thing. Big teeth and all. Well, never mind.” “How quickly the dream dies.”

“I went to the Thorns,” he said quickly, “which was a rotten idea all around. They despised me and I slept every night with one eye open—oh God—I heard the words leave my mouth and I couldn’t stop them, Soph—“

“I don’t really want logic right now, Carter. I mostly want murder.”

A man made his own future. He chipped it from whatever hardships insinuated themselves into his life; he carved out the happy, glad moments to capture his gratitude for them. It came from the simple magic of merely living.

“Name the horizon, and it’s ours.”

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