a book so bad, it gets a review all its own

[snugglekitty]

Book 34 was Labyrinth by Kate Mosse.
starkeymonster said, "So, basically, this is a crappy feminist version of The Da Vinci Code?" I said, "Yeah, except that it's only trying to be feminist."



This book got good reviews on Amazon. In fact, it came up as a recommendation for me. The cover was also very intriguing - a picture of a labyrinth (actually, a maze, since labyrinths don't have wrong turns), some hieroglyphics. The author's picture is on the back cover, with a quote from her saying that she wanted to write a Grail quest story, but one where the women have swords instead of the men. She wrote that her characters have lots of great sex, and fall in love, but it's not really about that, it's about them doing their own thing.
This quote is VASTLY misleading.

Only one of the women in the book ever has a sword, which she uses unsuccessfully once to try to defend herself from crusaders, before being rescued by a nobleman. Rather than trying to make her, say, a female warrior, or a politician, the author decides to make her a lord's daughter. And since that's not cliched enough, we'll make her an herbalist, too. You know, I'm still not really feeling the cliche here - I've got it! Let's give her an evil stepsister who works her wickedness through poison and manipulating men. Yeah, now you're talking!
Also, saying that the characters fall in love? It's the same character, alive in the Middle Ages and alive again in the present day, falling in love with the same schmuck, both times. The "mystery of the Grail," of which much is made, is never explained. I mean, I'm okay with unexplained mysteries. But to say that everything people believe about the Grail is false, and then to never explain the "truth," is really obnoxious. The main character never actually asserts herself in either incarnation - she reacts, rather than acting, throughout, and survives through Divine Providence and the intervention of men rather than standing on her own two feet. Her latter incarnation doesn't even have any interesting skills or personality traits. How is that "doing your own thing"?

Grrrr. I have to give it two stars. Which is very annoying - if the prose and plot had been just a little less good, I would've put it down after fifty pages. Instead, I wasted hours of my life that I am NEVER GETTING BACK because I wanted to see what would happen.

*le sigh*

(None of the other books I've been reading wanted to share a post with this puppy - and can you blame them?)

Comments

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I actually saw some posters about that book when I was in London. So I shouldn't read it then? I liked The Da Vinci Code...

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

I loved DVC myself. Really didn't like _Labyrinth_.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I will trust your opinion then! It's so rare to be able to take something *off* my To Read list.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

The great thing about Da Vinci Code was that it was really compelling and believable. It made you say, "Hey, why didn't I think of that possibility before?" This book didn't have those qualities.
Cute icon. :)

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I found a ton of good bookish icons at book_icons--before the recent icon upgrades I just had one book icon, which was wrong in so many ways. :)

DVC vs Kushiel series

[trouble4hire.livejournal.com]

Reading the Da Vinci Code made me want to go back to read the Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey, because the world that Carey envisions takes the secrets of the Da Vinci Code (Jesus's child, kings of France) and makes them public and accepted, and then builds on that.