ARC received in exchange for an honest review - thank you! Buckle up, folks. This isn’t going to be a review. This is going to be a rant. Let me start with my biggest issue. They seem to have taken it off the blurb now, but this book was marketed as an Odyssey retelling. It is NOT an Odyssey retelling. It has as much in common with The Odyssey as Harry Potter does.And, here is the key, frustrating thing: HAVING A CHARACTER CALLED HOMER WHO APPEARS FOR TWO SECONDS 🔴DOES NOT🔴 MAKE YOUR BOOK AN OD ARC received in exchange for an honest review - thank you!
Buckle up, folks. This isn’t going to be a review. This is going to be a rant.
Let me start with my biggest issue. They seem to have taken it off the blurb now, but this book was marketed as an Odyssey retelling. It is NOT an Odyssey retelling. It has as much in common with The Odyssey as Harry Potter does.And, here is the key, frustrating thing: HAVING A CHARACTER CALLED HOMER WHO APPEARS FOR TWO SECONDS 🔴DOES NOT🔴 MAKE YOUR BOOK AN ODYSSEY RETELLING!!! ONE DESCRIPTION OF THE SEA AS ‘WINE-DARK’ 🔴DOES NOT🔴 MAKE YOUR BOOK AN ODYSSEY RETELLING!!!I can only assume that whoever came up with that marketing ploy has never read either The Odyssey or The Beholder. The only reason I didn’t DNF this thing, and thus give it one star, is because I was waiting to see if it suddenly turned into gods and sea monsters near the end. (Spoiler: it didn’t).There are a lot of other problems with this book, too. Let me start with the biggest one: our heroine, Selah, Seneschal-Elect of Potomac. Selah has got to be one of the worst heroines I’ve read for a while. Let’s catalogue her multiple issues:✴️ She’s naïve. She actually thinks she’s in a fairy-tale: she judges people based on their appearance. She trusts some random man because he has ‘kind eyes’, she distrusts someone else because they ‘smirk’. You know how in Disney films, you always know who the villain is, because they’ll always look evil? Well, to Selah, life IS a Disney film. Considering she’s supposed to be the next ruler of her people, I pity the folk of Potomac. All it’s going to take is one trustworthy-looking con artist, and BOOM – there goes the country’s budget. Linked to this is the fact that she’s a huge idealist. All three boys that she has a crush on throughout the course of the book – Peter, Bear, and Torsden – are described as ‘flawless’ and ‘perfect.’ STOP IDOLISING THEM, GIRL.✴️ She’s far too emotional. Like I said, she’s the Seneschal-Elect, so she’ll be Seneschal when her father dies. She’s going to be a ruler, a diplomat. Which involves NOT spilling out your heart and soul to every-bloody-body you meet, which involves NOT crying in front of foreign delegations constantly, which involves a measure of discretion. I realise Selah grew up very sheltered, but surely these basic tenets have somehow impressed themselves upon her? Apparently not. Her emotions were on display for all to see, and I wanted to cringe on her behalf SO BADLY. She is going to be a shite Seneschal, because with the way she loudly broadcasts what she’s thinking and feeling, manipulating her will be easier than taking candy from a baby. She also gave her heart away FAR too easily – undying love is declared for at least two boys in the book, one of whom she’s known for a week. Helloooo, insta-love.✴️ She’s incredibly passive.
She knows that the crew tasked with ferrying her to all these countries to meet suitors are up to something shady. But she doesn’t even try to do anything about it. You know how Scarlett O’Hara’s motto is ‘I’ll think about it tomorrow?’ Yeah, that’s Selah. Why discover today what you can discover never? Who cares if it’s happening right under my nose and is clearly deeply shady? It was so painful to read about how easily Selah was put off from finding out anything about what was happening directly in front of her. She doesn’t do a single thing throughout the whole book. Plot is something that happens to her, she has no agency whatsoever. I can’t remember the last time I encountered such a weak, easily led heroine. Literally EVERY SINGLE THING THAT HAPPENS is done by other characters. The more I think about this, the more I realise how bad it really was. It was pathetic.Alright, I think I’m done with Selah. Let’s move onto the worldbuilding.MAKE UP YOUR MIND ABOUT WHAT KIND OF WORLD IT IS. It took me far too long to situate myself within the temporal frame of the world in The Beholder. There were clearly no planes, or electric light, etc. Selah is shocked to learn about what a radio is. So: old-fashioned. But then characters said things like ‘barf’ and ‘sure thing’, which in the context became ridiculously anachronistic. You can’t have it both ways!Selah’s attitude towards marriage was also deeply anachronistic. We’ve already established that this is a world where modern amenities don’t exist, where even though she’s going to be a female ruler she’ll need a husband by her side. But she acted like a potential suitor who was nine years older than her was a huge travesty. Um, no? In the actual nineteenth century, which this book was pretending to be set in, you were lucky as a ruler if your spouse was only nine years older than you! King William IV was 27 YEARS older than his queen, and that wasn’t even that shocking!!!This book flip-flopped ridiculously between old-fashioned and anachronistic. Not in a way that made Selah look like a feminist, just like a fool. Another example: she’s left her country to choose from a short list of pre-approved suitors (she doesn’t even know who’s on the list until it’s given to her), and then they’ll have a week of chaperoned courtship. Typical historical stuff. She’s making a political alliance to benefit her country, and she never once demurs. But suddenly, when it comes to her friend Anya, she’s all ‘Girls aren’t commodities! Let Anya marry whoever she wants, stop seeing her as a diplomatic chess piece!’ She’s apparently utterly blind to the fact that she is ALSO a diplomatic chess piece, and her rant didn’t feel assertive or feminist. Just dumb and lacking in self-awareness.The writing was fairly bland. When it came to relationships, there was lots of telling, not showing. Selah somehow feels like every one of the crew members of The Beholder is her family. How??? Why??? When did this happen?!?! The crowning moment came when she declared that Skop, a boy she’s exchanged three words with since she first met him, was like a brother to her. No wonder she falls in love at the drop of a hat, if people she’s spoken twice to mean that much to her. In fact, every single member of The Beholder’s crew feel as thin as paper. So why have I given it two stars and not just one?
Because I was slightly charmed by this thing the author did, where there was an allusion in many of the characters’ names. Perrault, Anderson, Homer… there’s even a horse named Cotton Nero, which is the manuscript Sir Gawain and the Green Knight comes from. Speaking of Sir Gawain, there was a weird little attempt to weave in elements from that story, but it fell very flat. I’m honestly not sure why it was even there. The description of Norge was also great, but the one of Winchester severely lacking in terms of making me feel like I was actually there. Now for the final verdict:
This book is, largely, a huge disappointment. Will I read the sequel? Probably not. Don’t be seduced by the cover, or its claims to be a retelling of any sort.[Blog] - [Bookstagram]
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