It's funny; I remember reading this when it first came out, but I didn't really spend much time actually pondering who was gonna kick the bucket. I think it mostly had to do with me kind of going, "Huh, someone's gonna die at the end. Wow. But that's ages away," with the subconscious assumption that the series would never actually end. I mean, at that point I wasn't worried so much about reading every single book, 'cause my allowance just couldn't keep up with them.
Rereading it now though, I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship with that damn prologue/epilogue. I mean, on the one hand, I'm always behind blatantly foreshadowing character death and then actually following through; that's got my full support. But the way she did it just bothers me.
I mean I feel like she took what should have been the single most powerful and affecting scene in the entire series, and she neutured it. (And by neutered, I mean instead of being the most powerful scene, it dropped to one of the five most powerful scenes. What can I say? I'm so difficult to please.) By writing Rachel's death so vaguely, by writing it in such a way as to keep who died a secret (human, happy accident and strong, turbulent spirit aside there's not much in that scene that is inherently Rachel) by choosing to write that scene that way she severely limited herself. I feel like essentially, by trying to write it as though it could be any of them, she ended up writing someone that was none of them. In one of the creative writing classes I took, the professor warned us about the dangers of hiding identities in your writing. It almost never works well because each character is supposed to have such a strong, unique voice that no one character could ever sound like anyone else. And that's something KAA always did really well, giving each of the kids their own voice. Honestly, that pro/eppie thing would almost have fit better in the Alternamorphs where vagueness and generalities are the name of the game.
And for Rachel's death especially, I feel like every single word, every moment, every breath should have just been saturated with Rachel. Who she was, who she is, what she has become, and at the last in particular, as Rachel felt and reacted to and dealt with the last emotions she would ever experience. I wanted all that, so I feel a bit cheated in that she ditched it all in favor of upping the suspense with a "Who's it gonna be? Who shall I kill with my mighty pen? Muahahahah!!!".
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-04-14 12:57 pm (UTC)Rereading it now though, I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship with that damn prologue/epilogue. I mean, on the one hand, I'm always behind blatantly foreshadowing character death and then actually following through; that's got my full support. But the way she did it just bothers me.
I mean I feel like she took what should have been the single most powerful and affecting scene in the entire series, and she neutured it. (And by neutered, I mean instead of being the most powerful scene, it dropped to one of the five most powerful scenes. What can I say? I'm so difficult to please.) By writing Rachel's death so vaguely, by writing it in such a way as to keep who died a secret (human, happy accident and strong, turbulent spirit aside there's not much in that scene that is inherently Rachel) by choosing to write that scene that way she severely limited herself. I feel like essentially, by trying to write it as though it could be any of them, she ended up writing someone that was none of them. In one of the creative writing classes I took, the professor warned us about the dangers of hiding identities in your writing. It almost never works well because each character is supposed to have such a strong, unique voice that no one character could ever sound like anyone else. And that's something KAA always did really well, giving each of the kids their own voice. Honestly, that pro/eppie thing would almost have fit better in the Alternamorphs where vagueness and generalities are the name of the game.
And for Rachel's death especially, I feel like every single word, every moment, every breath should have just been saturated with Rachel. Who she was, who she is, what she has become, and at the last in particular, as Rachel felt and reacted to and dealt with the last emotions she would ever experience. I wanted all that, so I feel a bit cheated in that she ditched it all in favor of upping the suspense with a "Who's it gonna be? Who shall I kill with my mighty pen? Muahahahah!!!".