lovecrapian horrorI'm currently reading THE WHISPERING DARK by Kelly Andrew and this book infuriates me with how good it could be but my issues with its execution, aaaaaaaa
THE WHISPERING DARK is tells the story of a deaf girl who enrolls at a magic university, basically. There are demons and walking between worlds and mediums and... I'm sure there's other stuff but the worldbuilding isn't very thorough. We don't know what she studies, I'm at 75% and I still unclear on exactly what her magical ability is. What concentrations are offered? What magic (if any) does she practice? Who knows! It's never explained.
But!!!!! The protagonist's deafness influences how she interacts with magic, and I think that's really clever. I want more of this.
The prose is great, the vibes and atmosphere are purposeful.
But then, the way some chapters are written... I feel like I'm missing pages. Important characters appear but we were never given an introduction. Chapters open with the protagonist doing something and only 3, 4 pages later do we realize there are other people in the room and she's not alone. Chapters end on cliffhangers and the following chapter skips ahead 2 days, a week.
Someone literally dies on page and the next page, the protagonist has given herself a haircut while her friends hang out in the bathtub. ??????? Did she have a reaction to the person dying? Why has a week gone by? What about the body? The killer? Why did she cut her hair????
no answer, time to put on a sparkly dress.
Characters travel to a place, but we don't get a reason why, where the place is, or what they're doing there. I'm constantly confused.
Sylvhem@winterdemon I hate when books do this. Every time I wonder how that could have happened.
I mean, it’s an obvious problem and one that concerns the very way of telling a story. It’s *basic*, not something hard to miss.
I mean, it’s an obvious problem and one that concerns the very way of telling a story. It’s *basic*, not something hard to miss.
@Sylvhem i suspect this is because publishing wants YA books to be FAST-PACED so editors ask to authors cut out scenes they don't think are exciting enough, and those scenes end up being the ones with vital information and character work.
totally not speaking from my own personal experience or anything 🥲🥲🥲
@winterdemon Yeah, but the editor should realize that with some stories or if poorly done, the end result border on unreadable? I don’t know, that makes me sad.
I hope yours was not mangled like this 😰.