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schomj's review
4.0
Saw this described as an urban fantasy novel about an older woman protagonist who uses nonviolent methods to resolve problems, and that is exactly what it is! Could easily become a series, but I'm kind of glad that it's a standalone because it's a delightful little nugget.
liszante's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The idea is fantastic. Pacifist urban fantasy featuring a female protagonist over 60. Yes and please. The execution, though, is greatly lacking.
I enjoy books about which others complain not much happens. In fact, it was while reading the reviews on one of those books (as I often do after reading a book) that I found a rec for this book. This is no such book. A lot happens and events constantly propel the characters from point to point. So, I am disappointed by the rec. That said, I also greatly enjoy books with a plot focus. So, the organization of the book--whether around characters or plot--is not the issue.
My problem is two-fold. First, this book features a clumsy, coincidental plot. Second, the book fails to live up to its promise of pacifist urban fantasy. And I suspect that the latter is the culprit for the former. The overall effect is that the author had an excellent idea, but then had no clue how to actually pull it off.
Marley, our over 60 protagonist, is a former teen hero-type who has hung up her stakes and bullets. She has a great fortune, gained via inheritance, and a reputation. She has made Seattle a peaceful place, but she does so with the benefit of inherited wealth and a lifetime of being someone to fear. The book really only touches on the benefits of her wealth once that I noticed. Her past is presented as something she regrets and has grown past, but is never really explored beyond that.
Her active pacifism (as opposed to the structural pacifism she creates through her wealth and reputation) relies on magic and coincidence (which is another form of her magic, but I'm separating them). Her magic involves making people more inclined to help her, fooling them with what is basically psychic paper, and creating copies of herself, whether her entire body or just her voice. Her pacifism is never really challenged. She isn't really in danger; it was just a copy. No one is able to oppose her face on. She magically intuits their name and then lightly compels them into doing what she wants. Now, I love a charismatic protagonist who can talk people around (check out Lindsay Buroker's books if you've not), but that isn't what she does here. People just magically fall into line.
Except once. There is one scene in which Marley does not use her magic that way. She tries to talk someone around and fails (because, honestly, she isn't that good at it) and so threatens to use her wealth, connections, and magic to utterly destroy someone. And, this someone isn't even one of the antagonists in the book. The problem is that this scene and then, in contrast, the rest of the book, suggest that pacifism isn't actually possible, unless you have the privileges and benefits that Marley does. When Marley meets some young vampire hunters, she chastises them for killing people (read: vampires and those who help them), but does not offer a viable alternative for what they could have done given their situation. Marley has set something up in Seattle, but how does that help someone in Memphis?
The coincidence is her doing whatever she feels like she ought to do no matter how unrelated it might seem--such as messing up someone else's drawing (this happens in the first set piece of the book). Later this bit of coincidence just happens to work out. This kind of coincidence/etc is fun in Dirk Gently, but annoying here. It carries the plot from moment to moment and even, at one rather memorable point, relies entirely on cliche. This level of coincidence allows her avoid difficult situations, save for when it is time for a show-down to happen plot-wise, in which case it pulls her into the moment so that the action can happen. Then, in the couple cases where we could have really seen her pacifism tested, she is either saved by her nephew or by something bigger going wrong. (Or she uses her copy magic).
Marley is also saved by her knowledge of the supernatural. The scenes using that knowledge were the most fun to read. The book worked best when it relied on its character being proactive and interesting, rather than just getting everything handed to her or effortlessly (and costlessly) avoiding trouble.
It is easy to a pacifist when you're the one holding all the cards and situations via coincidence bend around you. In fact, other than a hurt arm and the ending, Marley's actions only hurt other people. Maybe that's worse and we do see her self-doubt (a necessary component of her magic though), though such self-doubts are quickly waved off by her nephew.
If I read a book described as pacifist urban fantasy that has this level of action in it, I want to see the protagonist actually being pacifist. I want to see them resisting temptation (not just getting disappointed at others for not sharing their beliefs), discussing their beliefs (rather than just ignoring questions as Marley mostly does, though I think she touches on it once), or being put into situations where fighting and weapons seem the best and easiest way out (Marley's magic/coincidence/etc made it so that no scene ever felt actually dangerous).
For example, at one point Marley says that someone will have to go. This being will not go. We never see how she handles it. I realize that would be a detour for the plot, but it could have been worked in and it would have been a great way to see her pacifism in action. How do you make someone leave who cannot be reasoned or even just talked with?
In another book I read recently (and I am going to mangle this title, I'm sure), A Long Journey to an Angry Planet, the ship's captain is a pacifist. After his ship is attacked, some of his crew wish to arm the ship, but he insists on just improving their shields. This is a decision he has to affirm multiple times. And his pacifism costs--he gets hurt physically and his ship has to make a detour to resupply. He also thinks about how it is a choice not to arm himself or retaliate and how easy it would be to do otherwise.
Any moral choice we make costs. Some, such as being defensive or having a zero-sum attitude, have more immediate benefits than costs. Others, such as being kind, patient, and open to others, easily garner ridicule and pain. These have benefits over time as they improve relationships and often lead to people liking themselves a great deal more, but they aren't easy. Anytime we choose against fear, against meanness, against cynicism, we look foolish to a lot of people. We lose out in the short run. We may not get rewarded in any noticeable way in the long run.
Being a pacifist is not easy. It looks foolish and weak. It runs counter to how much of the world works.
Marley is not a pacifist. She is a regretful old woman with enough reputation, wealth, connections, knowledge, magic, and manufactured luck that she never has to put herself in the situations she faced in her youth. And she chastises others for not having the privilege and perspective that she has.
This is a fun enough book to read, but I do not rec it.
I enjoy books about which others complain not much happens. In fact, it was while reading the reviews on one of those books (as I often do after reading a book) that I found a rec for this book. This is no such book. A lot happens and events constantly propel the characters from point to point. So, I am disappointed by the rec. That said, I also greatly enjoy books with a plot focus. So, the organization of the book--whether around characters or plot--is not the issue.
My problem is two-fold. First, this book features a clumsy, coincidental plot. Second, the book fails to live up to its promise of pacifist urban fantasy. And I suspect that the latter is the culprit for the former. The overall effect is that the author had an excellent idea, but then had no clue how to actually pull it off.
Marley, our over 60 protagonist, is a former teen hero-type who has hung up her stakes and bullets. She has a great fortune, gained via inheritance, and a reputation. She has made Seattle a peaceful place, but she does so with the benefit of inherited wealth and a lifetime of being someone to fear. The book really only touches on the benefits of her wealth once that I noticed. Her past is presented as something she regrets and has grown past, but is never really explored beyond that.
Her active pacifism (as opposed to the structural pacifism she creates through her wealth and reputation) relies on magic and coincidence (which is another form of her magic, but I'm separating them). Her magic involves making people more inclined to help her, fooling them with what is basically psychic paper, and creating copies of herself, whether her entire body or just her voice. Her pacifism is never really challenged. She isn't really in danger; it was just a copy. No one is able to oppose her face on. She magically intuits their name and then lightly compels them into doing what she wants. Now, I love a charismatic protagonist who can talk people around (check out Lindsay Buroker's books if you've not), but that isn't what she does here. People just magically fall into line.
Except once. There is one scene in which Marley does not use her magic that way. She tries to talk someone around and fails (because, honestly, she isn't that good at it) and so threatens to use her wealth, connections, and magic to utterly destroy someone. And, this someone isn't even one of the antagonists in the book. The problem is that this scene and then, in contrast, the rest of the book, suggest that pacifism isn't actually possible, unless you have the privileges and benefits that Marley does. When Marley meets some young vampire hunters, she chastises them for killing people (read: vampires and those who help them), but does not offer a viable alternative for what they could have done given their situation. Marley has set something up in Seattle, but how does that help someone in Memphis?
The coincidence is her doing whatever she feels like she ought to do no matter how unrelated it might seem--such as messing up someone else's drawing (this happens in the first set piece of the book). Later this bit of coincidence just happens to work out. This kind of coincidence/etc is fun in Dirk Gently, but annoying here. It carries the plot from moment to moment and even, at one rather memorable point, relies entirely on cliche. This level of coincidence allows her avoid difficult situations, save for when it is time for a show-down to happen plot-wise, in which case it pulls her into the moment so that the action can happen. Then, in the couple cases where we could have really seen her pacifism tested, she is either saved by her nephew or by something bigger going wrong. (Or she uses her copy magic).
Marley is also saved by her knowledge of the supernatural. The scenes using that knowledge were the most fun to read. The book worked best when it relied on its character being proactive and interesting, rather than just getting everything handed to her or effortlessly (and costlessly) avoiding trouble.
It is easy to a pacifist when you're the one holding all the cards and situations via coincidence bend around you. In fact, other than a hurt arm and the ending, Marley's actions only hurt other people. Maybe that's worse and we do see her self-doubt (a necessary component of her magic though), though such self-doubts are quickly waved off by her nephew.
If I read a book described as pacifist urban fantasy that has this level of action in it, I want to see the protagonist actually being pacifist. I want to see them resisting temptation (not just getting disappointed at others for not sharing their beliefs), discussing their beliefs (rather than just ignoring questions as Marley mostly does, though I think she touches on it once), or being put into situations where fighting and weapons seem the best and easiest way out (Marley's magic/coincidence/etc made it so that no scene ever felt actually dangerous).
For example, at one point Marley says that someone will have to go. This being will not go. We never see how she handles it. I realize that would be a detour for the plot, but it could have been worked in and it would have been a great way to see her pacifism in action. How do you make someone leave who cannot be reasoned or even just talked with?
In another book I read recently (and I am going to mangle this title, I'm sure), A Long Journey to an Angry Planet, the ship's captain is a pacifist. After his ship is attacked, some of his crew wish to arm the ship, but he insists on just improving their shields. This is a decision he has to affirm multiple times. And his pacifism costs--he gets hurt physically and his ship has to make a detour to resupply. He also thinks about how it is a choice not to arm himself or retaliate and how easy it would be to do otherwise.
Any moral choice we make costs. Some, such as being defensive or having a zero-sum attitude, have more immediate benefits than costs. Others, such as being kind, patient, and open to others, easily garner ridicule and pain. These have benefits over time as they improve relationships and often lead to people liking themselves a great deal more, but they aren't easy. Anytime we choose against fear, against meanness, against cynicism, we look foolish to a lot of people. We lose out in the short run. We may not get rewarded in any noticeable way in the long run.
Being a pacifist is not easy. It looks foolish and weak. It runs counter to how much of the world works.
Marley is not a pacifist. She is a regretful old woman with enough reputation, wealth, connections, knowledge, magic, and manufactured luck that she never has to put herself in the situations she faced in her youth. And she chastises others for not having the privilege and perspective that she has.
This is a fun enough book to read, but I do not rec it.
see_sadie_read's review
4.0
4.5
Well, this was a real winner to me. I quite enjoyed my time with Marley Jacobs. In fact, I want to be Marley when I grow up! I loved that she's smart and capable, with a wealth of knowledge and experience under her belt. I also like that having a 20-year-old ex-soldier as her sidekick really subverts the idea of a hero. (You'd expect it be to him, after all). And the banter between the two, as well as Albert's simple humor was great. I appreciated Connolly's obvious attempt to highlight the invisibility of older women in society, but even I have to admit it sometimes came across with the subtlety of bull horn.
But there were a few things that didn't work for me. As outside the mold as Marley was in some ways her character really stuck to some cliches. The worst for me was her constant use of the endearment dear. "It's all right, dear." "Very well, dear." "Would you like a cup of coffee, dear." I understand it was part of her aggressively cheerful demeanor, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine and I'm gonna have a little rant about it.
I don't know a single elderly woman who actually uses the endearment dear in any manner but ironically. Depending on where you draw your line on 'elder,' these women lived through free love, Woodstock, world wars and economic depressions. They have seen some shit and come through it. They have internal cores of steel. And this insistence in fiction that they must all be cute little old ladies who coo and call everyone dear constantly drives me nuts.
I realize that this might be regional and there might be old women out there who say it. But that it's no where near as ubiquitous as authors seem to think it is is a hill I'll die on. So, mega pet peeve for me. It's just SO cliched at this point. Plus, my Kindle says dear appeared 251 times in the book and I don't remember many (if any) that weren't Marley using it as an endearment. So, Connolly is particularity bad about something that especially irritates me.
I also thought the middle sagged. The books starts out really strong, then turns into a series of go here, do this, go here, run there, do that, then go here again, etc. Then it picks up again at the end. Though I kind of feel like the ending undermines a lot of what Connolly was very obviously trying to do with the narrative. He set out a whole story about a 65-year-old kickass woman and then handed it all to the young man at the end. One could maybe argue the last few sentences redeem it, but I think it's a little too vague to be given credit.
Lastly, the editing starts to deteriorate the farther in to the book you get. It's never horrendous, but you notice.
Over all, however, I enjoyed the heck out of this.
Well, this was a real winner to me. I quite enjoyed my time with Marley Jacobs. In fact, I want to be Marley when I grow up! I loved that she's smart and capable, with a wealth of knowledge and experience under her belt. I also like that having a 20-year-old ex-soldier as her sidekick really subverts the idea of a hero. (You'd expect it be to him, after all). And the banter between the two, as well as Albert's simple humor was great. I appreciated Connolly's obvious attempt to highlight the invisibility of older women in society, but even I have to admit it sometimes came across with the subtlety of bull horn.
But there were a few things that didn't work for me. As outside the mold as Marley was in some ways her character really stuck to some cliches. The worst for me was her constant use of the endearment dear. "It's all right, dear." "Very well, dear." "Would you like a cup of coffee, dear." I understand it was part of her aggressively cheerful demeanor, but it's a huge pet peeve of mine and I'm gonna have a little rant about it.
I don't know a single elderly woman who actually uses the endearment dear in any manner but ironically. Depending on where you draw your line on 'elder,' these women lived through free love, Woodstock, world wars and economic depressions. They have seen some shit and come through it. They have internal cores of steel. And this insistence in fiction that they must all be cute little old ladies who coo and call everyone dear constantly drives me nuts.
I realize that this might be regional and there might be old women out there who say it. But that it's no where near as ubiquitous as authors seem to think it is is a hill I'll die on. So, mega pet peeve for me. It's just SO cliched at this point. Plus, my Kindle says dear appeared 251 times in the book and I don't remember many (if any) that weren't Marley using it as an endearment. So, Connolly is particularity bad about something that especially irritates me.
I also thought the middle sagged. The books starts out really strong, then turns into a series of go here, do this, go here, run there, do that, then go here again, etc. Then it picks up again at the end. Though I kind of feel like the ending undermines a lot of what Connolly was very obviously trying to do with the narrative. He set out a whole story about a 65-year-old kickass woman and then handed it all to the young man at the end. One could maybe argue the last few sentences redeem it, but I think it's a little too vague to be given credit.
Lastly, the editing starts to deteriorate the farther in to the book you get. It's never horrendous, but you notice.
Over all, however, I enjoyed the heck out of this.
archergal's review
2.0
I didn't like it. I thought the story was all over the place. I'm still not entirely sure what the plot was about.
I couldn't tell one character from another, with the exception of Marley. I'd read this was a good example of a book with an older woman as a protagonist. Frankly, I don't see it. Her main characteristic as an older woman is calling everyone "Dear", and That just got annoying.
Disappointed.
I couldn't tell one character from another, with the exception of Marley. I'd read this was a good example of a book with an older woman as a protagonist. Frankly, I don't see it. Her main characteristic as an older woman is calling everyone "Dear", and That just got annoying.
Disappointed.
alberthe's review
2.0
I really wanted to like this book, and I appreciated the diverse characters, but in the end, it just didn't connect with me. I didn't find the funny parts especially funny, and there was too much going on at once without my getting a chance to start caring about what happened to the main characters.
morganste's review
4.0
Magical realism at its best
Everyone needs an aunt Marley - an elderly auntie mame type who thinks her way out of problems with a little magic.
Everyone needs an aunt Marley - an elderly auntie mame type who thinks her way out of problems with a little magic.
mousegoddess's review
4.0
I read about this somewhere online, Tumblr maybe? In any case, it had a heroine who was supposed to be a combination of Miss Marple and Auntie Mame and that got my attention. So I bought it, but then I was sick and had to put it aside for a few months. But finally I was able to read it. It was everything I could have hoped. The characters are engaging, I love the fact that everything isn't spelled out the way some universes like to do, the magic was nebulous, and I'm from the Puget Sound so...there's a little homesickness adding to my enjoyment.
I read some of the less enthusiastic reviews and...I have to agree. They needed another eye on the proofreading, because there were a number of mistakes throughout the entire book. Sometimes that can detract from my enjoyment of a story, but overall I was able ignore it enough to immerse myself. But for any subsequent editions, the author may want to fix that. I can handle it in an ARC, but this was the final product that I paid money for, so...
Recommend? Hell yeah. But I would add the caveat that I think fans of mystery like Miss Marple, Mrs. Jeffries, Miss Seeton, that sort of thing, are going to be more enthusiastic. If you like those mysteries AND fantasy, this was made for you. Urban fantasy readers, it's gonna be hit or miss. Because we read a genre because we like the tropes, and the author likes to mess with them a bit here. That said, HIGHLY recommend, it was worth the money I spent (and I'm a broke college student so that should tell you something).
I read some of the less enthusiastic reviews and...I have to agree. They needed another eye on the proofreading, because there were a number of mistakes throughout the entire book. Sometimes that can detract from my enjoyment of a story, but overall I was able ignore it enough to immerse myself. But for any subsequent editions, the author may want to fix that. I can handle it in an ARC, but this was the final product that I paid money for, so...
Recommend? Hell yeah. But I would add the caveat that I think fans of mystery like Miss Marple, Mrs. Jeffries, Miss Seeton, that sort of thing, are going to be more enthusiastic. If you like those mysteries AND fantasy, this was made for you. Urban fantasy readers, it's gonna be hit or miss. Because we read a genre because we like the tropes, and the author likes to mess with them a bit here. That said, HIGHLY recommend, it was worth the money I spent (and I'm a broke college student so that should tell you something).
larisa2021's review
3.0
Would read further adventures in this world. Impressed with this author's range.
alesia_charles's review against another edition
4.0
Don't let the somewhat stilted writing style put you off, there's a reason for it.
If you enjoy seeing tropes deconstructed, this is the book for you.
If you enjoy seeing tropes deconstructed, this is the book for you.