Stories of women finding their way
Mar. 22nd, 2018 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearWhilst on retreat this week, I started and finished The Storm Sister by Lucinda Riley. It's the second in the Seven Sisters series, and follows sister number two, Ally, on her quest to discover her heritage. I thought the opening section would be much more truncated than in the first book, since it covers the same period and events, but the death of the sisters' adopted father and their gathering to hear the will is told again, from Ally's point of view. I guess it was good to get her perspective on it, as the protagonist of this volume, and it would make it easier for a reader treating the book as a standalone, but I found myself impatient for unknown portion of the story to get going.
The romance aspect of the present-day sections of this book is very different to the traditional arc of this kind of story, which I found refreshing and intriguing. And this actually turned out to be the case in the historical sections as well, so this book was a lot less predictable than the first one. I immediately liked the protagonist of the 1875 Norway-set thread, and the setting was beautifully portrayed.
However, I wasn't overly keen on the way Ally and Anna were treated by the men in their lives. They objected to a certain extent, but also put up with a lot of marginalisation and removal of agency. I didn't find the initial romances very credible, particularly in terms of the supposed mutual attraction between Anna and Jens. Anna actually highlighted at one point that they barely knew each other and had nothing on which to base their feelings, but her emphasising this didn't make it any more satisfying.
There was some interesting exploration of societal restrictions on relationships, but I wasn't particularly happy with how any of the storylines played out, especially since Ally's concluded with my most hated romance trope. Still, the book kept me reading throughout its 700 pages (which I completed in four days), and I do like the premise of the series as a whole. I will be continuing onto the next books, as I'm more interested in the later sisters and how their stories might go.
After listening to this week's Feminist Frequency Radio podcast, I downloaded and played Florence, a mobile game recommended by all three of the FemFreq hosts. It only took about 40 minutes to play, but it was beautifully designed and really affecting. It follows Florence, a young woman finding her way through a relationship, and figuring out what she wants to do with her life. The gameplay is incredibly simple, but really innovative in its design and mechanics. The ending felt a bit abrupt (and I would happily have played for much longer), but I liked the life-affirming message, and the unexpected conclusion to the romantic storyline. I would definitely recommend this game - it's cheap and short, but really lovely and lots of fun.
The romance aspect of the present-day sections of this book is very different to the traditional arc of this kind of story, which I found refreshing and intriguing. And this actually turned out to be the case in the historical sections as well, so this book was a lot less predictable than the first one. I immediately liked the protagonist of the 1875 Norway-set thread, and the setting was beautifully portrayed.
However, I wasn't overly keen on the way Ally and Anna were treated by the men in their lives. They objected to a certain extent, but also put up with a lot of marginalisation and removal of agency. I didn't find the initial romances very credible, particularly in terms of the supposed mutual attraction between Anna and Jens. Anna actually highlighted at one point that they barely knew each other and had nothing on which to base their feelings, but her emphasising this didn't make it any more satisfying.
There was some interesting exploration of societal restrictions on relationships, but I wasn't particularly happy with how any of the storylines played out, especially since Ally's concluded with my most hated romance trope. Still, the book kept me reading throughout its 700 pages (which I completed in four days), and I do like the premise of the series as a whole. I will be continuing onto the next books, as I'm more interested in the later sisters and how their stories might go.
After listening to this week's Feminist Frequency Radio podcast, I downloaded and played Florence, a mobile game recommended by all three of the FemFreq hosts. It only took about 40 minutes to play, but it was beautifully designed and really affecting. It follows Florence, a young woman finding her way through a relationship, and figuring out what she wants to do with her life. The gameplay is incredibly simple, but really innovative in its design and mechanics. The ending felt a bit abrupt (and I would happily have played for much longer), but I liked the life-affirming message, and the unexpected conclusion to the romantic storyline. I would definitely recommend this game - it's cheap and short, but really lovely and lots of fun.
