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A review by somewheregirl7
Undine by Penni Russon
3.0
This was a fairly strong book to start out. The characters and events were interesting and had me intrigued. I was eager to see how the story would develop and anticipated reading it each day. The book remained strong up until the very end but never delivered on some of its promise and was rather insipid in the final scenes.
Many aspects of the book center around allusions to Shakespeare's Tempest, some subtle, some overt. I fully expected that those strong ties would be explained in a satisfying way. Instead they were not. The author just left them as coincidence, a barely mentioned tendency of one of the characters to name his pets after characters from The Tempest. That ignores the other aspects of the book that mirrored The Tempest.
This is a decent read but extremely frustrating because of how good it COULD have been and wasn't. The basic writing talent is there, but the story does not deliver.
SPOILERS BELOW!
In
3
2
1
Undine never reads The Tempest during the course of the novel, however, the very last line in the book is Undine reciting a quote from the play. That really bothered me considering the character flat-out said she'd never read the play and then suddenly she can quote it.
I was disappointed at how the author portrayed Undine as this irresistable creature - EVERY boy (other than Dan) mentioned by name in the book is in love with her. That smacks of too much wish fulfillment and a tendency to over-glamorozie. I found it annoying.
The author did a good job of capturing teenage angst and how rough those years can be. Then she would lose those threads however. She never really explained Chaos Magic or spent much time on it - it's just this concept that was thrown in and took up a bit of page space. It felt unfinished.
The fight between Undine and her mother was also unrealistic. I can see why Undine reacted as she did, but the things that her mother said to her and how her mother acted were out-of-character with everything else we see and are told about her mother.
I really disliked the final resolution of the book. Undine's father has just tried to suck out her magic. So she forgives him and decides that he isn't a bad father and everything is going to be fine. His power-hunger just disappears. Poof. Magic. That is so completely unrealistic! The change does not feel genuine or warranted on either of their parts. I was also unhappy with how the author shows Trout dying and then *poof* magic, guess what he's not dead! There are no real consequences for anyone in this book. The teenagers behave recklessly as do the parents and there is never, ever any consequence for it. Undine SNUFFED OUT A STAR! Ummm she intrinsically altered the universe. Could we please spend more than a sentence on that? So it's just okay that she might have sent an entire solar system into chaos?
There were so many threads that were started and never picked up, like the Internet chat board stuff with Trout. Altogether those things take a very promising book and kill it - leaving it bland, forgettable and disappointing.
Many aspects of the book center around allusions to Shakespeare's Tempest, some subtle, some overt. I fully expected that those strong ties would be explained in a satisfying way. Instead they were not. The author just left them as coincidence, a barely mentioned tendency of one of the characters to name his pets after characters from The Tempest. That ignores the other aspects of the book that mirrored The Tempest.
This is a decent read but extremely frustrating because of how good it COULD have been and wasn't. The basic writing talent is there, but the story does not deliver.
SPOILERS BELOW!
In
3
2
1
Undine never reads The Tempest during the course of the novel, however, the very last line in the book is Undine reciting a quote from the play. That really bothered me considering the character flat-out said she'd never read the play and then suddenly she can quote it.
I was disappointed at how the author portrayed Undine as this irresistable creature - EVERY boy (other than Dan) mentioned by name in the book is in love with her. That smacks of too much wish fulfillment and a tendency to over-glamorozie. I found it annoying.
The author did a good job of capturing teenage angst and how rough those years can be. Then she would lose those threads however. She never really explained Chaos Magic or spent much time on it - it's just this concept that was thrown in and took up a bit of page space. It felt unfinished.
The fight between Undine and her mother was also unrealistic. I can see why Undine reacted as she did, but the things that her mother said to her and how her mother acted were out-of-character with everything else we see and are told about her mother.
I really disliked the final resolution of the book. Undine's father has just tried to suck out her magic. So she forgives him and decides that he isn't a bad father and everything is going to be fine. His power-hunger just disappears. Poof. Magic. That is so completely unrealistic! The change does not feel genuine or warranted on either of their parts. I was also unhappy with how the author shows Trout dying and then *poof* magic, guess what he's not dead! There are no real consequences for anyone in this book. The teenagers behave recklessly as do the parents and there is never, ever any consequence for it. Undine SNUFFED OUT A STAR! Ummm she intrinsically altered the universe. Could we please spend more than a sentence on that? So it's just okay that she might have sent an entire solar system into chaos?
There were so many threads that were started and never picked up, like the Internet chat board stuff with Trout. Altogether those things take a very promising book and kill it - leaving it bland, forgettable and disappointing.